Carrefour Buys New Shopping Malls

PARIS--French retailer Carrefour (CA.FR) Monday said it will buy a portfolio of European shopping malls for 2 billion euros ($2.76 billion) from Klepierre SA (LI.FR), a French real estate company, in a bid to boost its hypermarket business.

Carrefour will create a new company to operate the 127 malls in France, Italy and Spain, and the 45 malls the retailer already owns in France, managing the malls anchored to its supermarkets. Carrefour will own 42% of the new company and institutional investors will own the remainder, it said.

The operation is part of an effort by the company to boost profitability after a few difficult years. Having had three bosses in the past five years, Carrefour is struggling to position itself amid competition from low-cost competitors, which have thrived as consumers have tightened household budgets during the economic downturn.

Georges Plassat, who has been at the helm of the company since 2012, has announced a back-to-basics strategy.

Write to Inti Landauro at [e-mail]

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