Profit.ro, citing market sources, wrote that British group M Core has bought six operating Penny stores for about 18 million euros. The towns named are Băleni, Costești, Filipeștii de Pădure, Nehoiu, Răzvad and Câmpulung. The deal is not confirmed by a REWE or M Core statement. Until public filings appear, it remains an exclusive report.

The same sources speak of five more sites, put at about 12.5 million euros: a store in Urziceni, billed for March 2027; Carei and Techirghiol in spring 2027; a plot in Ivești; Drăgășani, with a gallery. That tranche is not a stock-exchange filing either. It is a portfolio intention, not a rent catalogue.

Penny, the REWE chain, has around 470 stores in Romania. M Core entered in 2023, when it took 25 retail parks from Mitiska Reim in a deal of about 219 million euros, reported then by the trade press. The shift towards proximity stores in small towns is, in Profit.ro’s reading, a new niche for the same investor, not a sale of the Penny chain.

The shops stay Penny. What changes, if the report holds, is the owner of the buildings. The distinction matters: a retail tenant does not leave the company when the property changes funds. This is not investment advice on retail parks and not a valuation of REWE stock.

Anyone announcing “Penny has been sold to the British” has the object wrong. Anyone announcing 11 shops opening tomorrow has the calendar wrong: six are already trading, five are on paper, with dates in 2027. Urziceni, Carei and Techirghiol have spring placeholders, not keys in hand.

Until M Core or REWE speak, the 18 million and 12.5 million euro figures rest on sources. We publish them as such, with the towns, and without inflating an exclusive into a registry fact.

Image: Olgierd Rudak, a Penny store in Senftenberg, Germany, 29 August 2026, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; a German REWE front, not the six Romanian shops.

Sources consulted: Exclusive: Penny stores in small towns, M Core on a new niche - Profit.ro; M Core enters Romania with EUR 219 mln Mitiska deal - Romania Insider.