Ahold and Caprabo agreement to end Spanish joint venture; Termination enables Ahold to grow independently in Spain.

ZAANDAM, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 22, 1998-- Royal Ahold, the international food retailer, and Caprabo, a supermarket operator in the Spanish province of Catalonia, have reached agreement to dissolve their joint venture known as Store 2000. Under the agreement, Caprabo will pay 5.5 billion Spanish pesetas (approximately $36 million) for Ahold's stake in the 50/50 joint venture. Discontinuation of the joint venture paves the way for Ahold to grow quickly in Spain on its own.

Royal Ahold (Koninklijke Ahold nv) is a leading international food retailer with annualized sales of approximately $35 billion and 3,200 stores and 220,000 associates worldwide. Ahold is the leading food retailer in The Netherlands, one of the top supermarket companies in the US, and has major operations in several countries in Southern and Central Europe, Latin America and Asia. In the United States, Ahold is prominent along the East Coast, operating the BI-LO, Giant Food Stores (including Edwards), Tops Markets (including Finast), and Stop & Shop companies encompassing over 830 stores. Upon closure of the Giant Food Inc. acquisition on October 28, 1998, in the US Ahold will operate over 1000 stores along the eastern seaboard with annualized US sales approaching $20 billion.

In addition to its listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: AHO), Ahold's shares are trading on the Amsterdam Exchanges and on the Swiss Exchange, and Ahold options are also traded on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX). Ahold common shares may be accessed on the Reuter Equities 2000 Service under the symbol AHLN.AS and on Quotron under the symbol AHOLN.EU. Additional information is available on Ahold's home page: http://www.ahold.nl.