Louis Delhaize exits France, sells stores to Carrefour

Good deal for Carrefour

Carrefour has paid 1.05 billion euros for the 60 Cora hypermarkets and 115 supermarkets of the Match enseigne, whose 24,000 employees turn over 5.2 billion euros – more than two-thirds of Louis Delhaize’s group sales. Carrefour is also taking over the real estate of 55 hypermarkets and 77 supermarkets.

For Carrefour, it says it is a very interesting deal because there is a “very strong geographical complementary”: Cora and Match are particularly strong in the northern regions closer to the Belgian border, where Carrefour is “relatively weak”.

Synergies

Carrefour hopes the merger will generate 110 million euros in annual synergy benefits. Half of that should come from optimising omnichannel costs, the other half thanks to a better distribution and marketing cost optimisation.

The French competition authorities still have to approve the acquisition. If they do, the two retailers involved hope to complete the acquisition by next summer.

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