Carrefour buys Brazilian retailer

The Carrefour Group announces a major acquisition in Brazil, positioning itself as the market leader and creating new opportunities for growth. The Carrefour Group has signed an agreement to acquire the Atacadao Company for a price of 2.2bn Reais (US1.1ml).
Atacadao is a leading operator of discount hypermarkets in Brazil, operating from 34 stores across the country, of which 17 are located in Sao Paulo state. Atacadao’s property portfolio consists of 214,000 m2, of which over 90% is freehold. The company reported net sales in 2006 of 4bn Reais (€1.5bn), representing a 4% market share.
With the transaction, Carrefour Brazil becomes the number one food retailer in terms of sales, further consolidating its strong position in the Sao Paulo market.
This acquisition forms part of Carrefour’s strategy to reinforce its presence in key growth markets through a locally adapted multi format approach. With this investment in discount hypermarkets, Carrefour is able to reach a complementary segment of the existing customer base to hypermarkets, supermarkets (Carrefour Bairro), and hard discount (Dia).
Carrefour’s operations in Brazil consist of 109 hypermarkets, 34 Carrefour Bairro and 258 Dia hard discount stores for total net sales in 2006 of €3.8bn.