Retail group Carrefour has signed an agreement to sell its Taiwan business to Uni-President, its “long-time partner and co-shareholder” on the Asian island, it announced on Tuesday.
This sale of 60% of Carrefour Taiwan, which should “be effective in mid-2023”, values the entity “on the basis of an enterprise value of 2,000 million euros”, the group specifies in a statement. Carrefour says that it has achieved in Taiwan in 2021 a turnover without taxes of 2.5 billion euros. The operation should generate a capital gain for Carrefour of approximately 900 million euros.
Carrefour pulls out of Asia
At the end of the operation, which must be approved by the local competition authorities, the Uni-President group, which operates the 7-Eleven brand on the island in particular, will have 100% of Carrefour Taiwan. “Carrefour Taiwan will continue to use the Carrefour brand in the coming years and will be part of the large network that operates under the Carrefour brand in more than 40 countries,” specifies the distributor.
This sale had already been mentioned in various media, in particular Challenges in the summer of 2021, and the group had not denied having made a “reflection on the critical size of its international subsidiaries”. It represents the disassociation from the Asian continent of a group that had already left China in 2019, ceding control of its activities to the local group Suning.com for an amount of 620 million euros.
Previously present in China since 1995, Carrefour arrived in Taiwan in 1987 through a joint venture with Uni-Président. The common entity “manages with about 15,000 employees an extensive network of 340 stores, including 68 hypermarkets and 272 supermarkets and premium stores, as well as 129 shopping centers.” At the beginning of June, the Brazilian subsidiary of Carrefour had completed the acquisition announced in April 2021 of Grupo Big to significantly strengthen its leadership position in the Latin American country, another Carrefour stronghold with Europe.
Source: BFM TV
