Carrefour plans acquisition of Penny Market from Rewe

28/06/05 Carrefour announces its intention to acquire Penny Market in France from Rewe, and to divest Prodirest to transGourmet (JV between Rewe and the Swiss group, Coop).

In order to fulfil legal obligations, Carrefour and Rewe have begun the consultation with the Comités d’Entreprise of their subsidiaries concerned by these operations. The agreements for the implementation of these divestments, subject to the approval of the competition authorities, will be signed when the consultations are finalized in the coming weeks.

Penny Market operates 101 discount stores in the North of France, with net sales in 2004 of €262m. Penny Market owns the freehold to 55 of these stores.

Through 26 warehouses (of which 5 are affiliates), Prodirest distributes food products to 40,000 customers involved in commercial and institutional catering. Prodirest had net sales in 2004 of €526m.

The fulfilment of this transaction would constitute another milestone in Carrefour’s strategic programme initiated in early 2005 to optimise its asset portfolio through the divestment of non-core activities, and through tactical acquisitions in countries and in formats where the company sees opportunity to improve its financial returns.

Since the beginning of the year, Carrefour has divested its business in Mexico and entered into a franchise agreement with Aeon in Japan.

At the same time, it has concluded the acquisition of 12 hypermarkets in Poland from Ahold, signed an agreement with Aligros in Italy and signed agreements to buy Gima and Endi in Turkey and Chris Cash & Carry in Cyprus. Carrefour has also acquired 10 hypermarkets in Brazil in the Sao Paulo area.

In France, Carrefour operates 216 hypermarkets, 1023 supermarkets, 1647 convenience stores, and 644 hard discount stores under the ED banner which will be reinforced by the acquisition of Penny Market (as of end of first quarter 2005)