Politics crash Couche-Tard s US$20B shopping trip to Paris
Angelina Rascouet, Sandrine Rastello, William Horobin and Ania Nussbaum, Bloomberg News
Politics torpedo Couche-Tard s deal for Carrefour VIDEO SIGN OUT
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. founder Alain Bouchard hoped to salvage a US$20 billion offer for Carrefour SA when he arrived at the French Finance Ministry, whose headquarters juts out over the Seine like a beached aircraft carrier in eastern Paris.
After being kept waiting for a brief audience with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Bouchard got the message: The proposed deal was dead on arrival, torpedoed by French political opposition.
The meeting Friday capped a tumultuous week for Couche-Tard and Carrefour. Bouchard, a self-made billionaire who had transformed an obscure Canadian gas-station operator into an empire of 14,200 retail sites through acquisitions, wanted to take the next step. Buying the French grocer would have turned Couche-Tard into a global re
Couche-Tard, Carrefour end merger talks amid French objections bnnbloomberg.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bnnbloomberg.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc and France's Carrefour SA have abandoned talks on a proposed US$20 billion merger following stiff opposition from the French finance minister, and will look instead at forming a looser alliance.
Couche-Tard seeks to rescue Carrefour bid as objections rise bnnbloomberg.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bnnbloomberg.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.