Adds particulars on worth, Carrefour context, share response
PARIS, Sept 1 (Reuters) – French luxurious items billionaire Bernard Arnault has bought out of grocery store group Carrefour CARR.PA, the retailer he first invested in 14 years in the past and whose potential takeover by Canada’s Couche-Tard unravelled earlier this yr.
Arnault held a 5.7% stake through his Financiere Agache holding firm, which raised 724 million euros ($854 million) by promoting shares in the marketplace in an accelerated bookbuilding course of, bookrunner Societe Generale mentioned on Wednesday.
Carrefour shares had been down simply over 5% in early buying and selling.
The Agache stake was bought at 16 euros per share, after Arnault, alongside Colony Capital and Axon Capital first took a 9.8% holding in 2007 at a mean worth of 47 euros per share.
Carrefour has been by means of a number of transformations, with shareholders benefiting because it spun-off companies, together with its DUA supermaket chain. Arnault was one among its three huge shareholders, together with the Moulin household and Brazilian businessman Abilio dos Santos Diniz.
The corporate in Might renewed the mandate of Chairman and Chief Government Alexandre Bompard, who has spearheaded a turnaround plan involving price cuts and an e-commerce push to spice up gross sales and income, for one more three years.
Arnault, France’s richest man, was supportive of Bompard in January when the manager was in talks with Canada’s Couche-Tard a couple of takeover deal, sources mentioned on the time. Couche-Tard finally dropped its bid of almost $20 billion for Carrefour after it bumped into opposition from the French authorities.
Bompard has since carried out the acquisition of Grupo BIG, valued at round $1.three billion, and asserted Carrefour was viable by itself.
Agache is concentrated on investments in style and luxurious, and took a stake in sandal maker Birkenstock in February.
The car had already begun to promote down a part of its Carrefour stake in 2020.
($1 = 0.8478 euros)
(Reporting by Sarah White Enhancing by David Goodman and Barbara Lewis)
(([email protected]; + 33 (0) 1 49 49 56 85;))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the creator and don’t essentially mirror these of Nasdaq, Inc.
www.nasdaq.com