Carrefour plans acquisition of Penny Market

Carrefour announces its intention to acquire Penny Market in France from Rewe, and to divest Prodirest to transGourmet (JV between Rewe and the Swiss group, Coop). In order to fulfil legal obligations, Carrefour and Rewe have begun the consultation with the Comités d’Entreprise of their subsidiaries concerned by these operations. The agreements for the implementation of these divestments, subject to the approval of the competition authorities, will be signed when the consultations are finalized in the coming weeks.
Penny Market operates 101 discount stores in the North of France, with net sales in 2004 of €262m. Penny Market owns the freehold to 55 of these stores.
Through 26 warehouses (of which 5 are affiliates), Prodirest distributes food products to 40,000 customers involved in commercial and institutional catering. Prodirest had net sales in 2004 of €526m.
The fulfilment of this transaction would constitute another milestone in Carrefour’s strategic programme initiated in early 2005 to optimise its asset portfolio through the divestment of non-core activities, and through tactical acquisitions in countries and in formats where the company sees opportunity to improve its financial returns.