French retailer Carrefour to sell Colombian operations to Chile's Cencosud for $2.62 billion
20 Oct 2012
French retailer Carrefour, yesterday agreed to sell its Colombian assets to Chile's Cencosud for €2 billion ($2.62 billion) in order to reduce debt.
Carrefour, the world's second biggest retailer after Wal-Mart, which is exiting Singapore and Greece, said that the sale is part of its strategy to pull out of non-core markets.
"This transaction is in line with Carrefour's new strategy of focusing on geographies and countries in which it holds or aims to develop a leading position," Carrefour said in a statement.
Present in Colombia since 1998, Carrefour operates 72 hypermarkets, 16 convenience stores and 4 cash and carry stores in the country, with annual sales of € 1.5 billion.
Carrefour would use proceeds raised from the sale to reduce its debt, which stood at €6.9-billion at the end of 2011.
With an 18-per cent market share in Colombia, Carrefour has been struggling to compete with market leader Exito, which controls 43 per cent of the country's retail market.
