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PARIS (Reuters) - So what now for Carrefour, forbidden from wedding its wealthy Canadian admirer, just as it needs to renovate? Will fate find a more suitable suitor, perhaps closer to home?
FILE PHOTO: A Carrefour logo is seen on a Carrefour Hypermarket store in Antibes, France May 6, 2019. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard
The retailer’s proposed marriage to Alimentation Couche-Tard of distant Quebec was always likely to raise the hackles of France, fiercely protective of a favoured private-sector child.
Indeed when Carrefour boss Alexandre Bompard first met Couche-Tard Chairman Alain Bouchard face to face, on Jan. 8 in Paris, he made it clear a deal would never fly without sweeteners for the French government, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire expressed France's stiff opposition to a possible near-US$20 billion takeover of Carrefour by Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard on Friday, driving the French retailer's shares down by 4.5%.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire expressed France's stiff opposition to a possible near-$20 billion takeover of Carrefour by Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard on Friday, driving the French retailer's shares down by 4.5%.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire expressed France’s stiff opposition to a possible near-$20 billion takeover of Carrefour by Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard