Carrefour has announced it is to sell an 80% equity interest in its Chinese arm to Suning.com. The deal values Carrefour's Chinese operations at around €1.4 billion.
Carrefour Group will retain a 20% stake in the business and two out of the seven seats on Carrefour China’s supervisory board, the retailer said.
Carrefour’s presence in China dates back to 1995. It operates a network of 210 hypermarkets and 24 c-stores in the country.
Net sales at Carrefour China stood at €3.6 billion in 2018 (RMB 28.5 billion), with EBITDA standing at €66 million (RMB 516 million).
Store Count
Suning.com operates a network of 8,881 stores in more than 700 cities across China, as well as the country’s third largest B2C e-commerce platform.
‘The strong complementarity between Carrefour China and Suning.com’s activities will accelerate the development of Carrefour China,’ Carrefour said in a statement.
The transaction is subject to approval by Chinese competition authorities and other customary conditions, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2019, the retailer added.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
