BOSTON -- The Massachusetts State Superior Court here has upheld an August 1995 Superior Court ruling ordering the return of store and real estate holdings valued at approximately $850 million to Demoulas SuperMarkets, Tewksbury, Mass.
t growth in the near future."
Demoulas SuperMarkets operates 57 stores under the Demoulas and Market Basket names in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, with estimated sales of $1.6 billion.
According to the courts, the assets that must be returned -- consisting of 45 Market Basket stores and approximately 50 shopping centers -- had been wrongfully diverted by Telemachus (Mike) Demoulas and other members of his family from his brother's company. Mike Demoulas remains as president of Demoulas SuperMarkets pending an appeal of a related court ruling.
In that ruling the same Massachusetts State Superior Court judge who ordered the return of assets said that Mike Demoulas and his four children must return to the George Demoulas family approximately $700 million worth of Demoulas stock and partnership interests plus $206 million in cash. The cash amount is equal to the value of the company's stock from a 16-year period during which distributions had been diverted, the courts said.
