The Economist, 06/30/2011
CARREFOUR, a giant French retailer, has been through a rough patch. It has tried for several years to revive its hypermarket business in France, without much success. Blue Capital, its unhappy main shareholder, has relentlessly pushed the sale of assets to prop up Carrefour’s sagging share price. Before the retailer’s recent annual general meeting, rumours circulated that Lars Olofsson, its chief executive, was on his way out.
After a tumultuous meeting Mr Olofsson kept his job. A week later, on June 28th, Carrefour said that it had received an offer to merge its Brazilian operations with those of Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição (CBD), the owner of Pão de Açúcar (“sugar loaf”), a fancy Brazilian chain.
Under the proposal, CBD and Carrefour’s Brazilian arm will merge into Gama, a holding company capitalised by the (state-owned) Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES). This would receive an investment of €2 billion ($2.9 billion) and a loan of €500m from BNDES. Carrefour would have a 50% stake in the new entity.
Brazil Portal 