French retail giant Carrefour SA, the world''s No 2 supermarket operator behind Wal-Mart, has announced having acquired German company Tengelmann''s Spanish discount operations under the Plus Supermercados brand.

Carrefour said in a statement that its Spanish hard discount unit Dia had bought the 250 Plus Supermercados stores for €200 million ($275.4 million / Rs1,148.6 crore) from privately held German retailing giant Tengelmann Warenhandelsgesellschaft KG.

The agreement also includes 58 future store projects, Carrefour said.

Carrefour plans to expand its presence in the fast-growing "hard discount" sector of the retailing market, where discounts are continually offered on a wide range of goods, in a bid to reduce its dependence on the French market, which has been facing sluggish sales and falling returns.

Carrefour is the leading hard-discount retailer in Spain, where its sales totaled €3.5 billion last year, accounting for about 15 per cent of its overall revenue.

The German firm''s 250 Plus Supermercados will add a sales area of 170,000 square meters of property and net sales of €437 million for the twelve-month period ended April 2007 to the French retail giant''s 2,806 stores operated by its Spanish arm, Dia.

"This acquisition allows Dia to reinforce its position as market leader in hard discount in Spain," Carrefour said in its statement.

This is Carrefour''s second acquisition in quick succession in the hard-discount sector under CEO José Luis Duran.

In April Carrefour paid about $1.1 billion for Atacadão Distribuição Comércio e Industria Ltda., the owner of 34 Brazilian discount hypermarkets, making it Brazil''s biggest retailer.

Carrefour has been shuffling its portfolio of global assets since early 2005, to focus on markets in which it was one of the top three players and exit others.

Shares in Carrefour have been on a roller-coaster ride in recent months after French billionaire Bernard Arnault teamed with Los Angeles-based Colony Capital LLC in March to buy a 9.8 per cent stake, sparking speculation of an imminent buyout.