Carrefour starts selling its Asian operations
The strong growth of the Carrefour share continues. After gaining nearly 3% Monday to close the Paris Bourse, the title was up 1.39% to 33.53 euros to 11.45, in a market that climbed 2.65%.
If the information has not yet been confirmed by Carrefour does not wish to comment, the group would indeed begun selling its operations in Thailand (550 million euros turnover in 2009 ), Malaysia (300 million euros of turnover) and Singapore (80 million euros of turnover), according to Reuters. "I would not reconsider our position on a number of emerging markets where the potential is not important," said Lars Olofsson, Executive Director of Carrefour, Le Figaro last January. These transfers could bring him some 800 million euros.
"Carrefour has too dispersed"
"These operations will confirm Carrefour to focus on China (3.5 billion euros in turnover in the first quarter of 2010, Ed), Taiwan (1.3 billion euros of turnover) or Indonesia (800 million euros of turnover), "said an analyst of CM-CIC Securities specialist value. He added: "These markets like Mexico, Chile, Japan, South Korea or Switzerland, which Carrefour has withdrawn, were either uninteresting or markets where the group has rapidly exceeded by its competitors. Carrefour was too dispersed. According to the analyst, other distributors present in Asia as Tesco and Casino would be interested, or even private equity investment based on the evolution of debt markets and mergers and acquisitions.The Casino has wished to make any comment.
Carrefour wants to "re-enchant the hyper"
To boost sales of its hypermarkets, the group plans to create new concepts. As part of its "hyper-enchantment" Carrefour should delegate its rays to Virgin Music, according to the magazine Challenges. By outsourcing this department to a specialist, the group hopes to attract more young people into its stores. A first test will be done in the store Venissieux. And if successful, the contract could be extended to 238 Carrefour hypermarkets, and cover all rays non-food, whose sales have fallen 5% in 2009.
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