French retailer Carrefour to sell Malaysian operations to Japan’s Aeon for $324 mn

Carrefour SA, France's biggest retail chain, yesterday agreed to sell its Malaysian operations to Japan's Aeon Co for €250 million ($324 million).

Boulogne-Billancourt-based Carrefour is Malaysia's fourth-biggest retailer with 26 hypermarkets, which generated sales of €400 million in the 12 months through 30 June.

''The transaction is part of Carrefour's strategy of refocusing on its core activities and allocating its resources to mature countries where it occupies strong and established positions and emerging markets where it has strong growth potential,'' Carrefour said in a statement.

Hit by consumer spending in Europe, Carrefour, the world's second-biggest retailer after Walmart, has made up in Latin America, its fastest growing region having generated 8.5 per cent of its €81.3 billion revenues in 2011.

Last month, it agreed to sell its Colombian assets to Chile's Cencosud for €2 billion ($2.62 billion) as part of its strategy to pull out of non-core markets. (See: French retailer Carrefour to sell Colombian operations to Chile's Cencosud for $2.62 billion)

It recently also pulled out of recession-hit Greece in July due to slumping sales, and plans to shut its Singapore unit by year-end,  and is reviewing the operations of its Polish and Turkish units.