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France: Watchdog clears supermarket buyout after major Parisian divesture

By  |  July 10, 2013

France’s antitrust regulator has cleared the proposed buyout of a chain of supermarkets by retailer Groupe Casino, so long as the group divests stores in Paris, according to reports. Groupe Casino will be required to sell 55 of about 500 locations in the capital, and three in the rest of the country, in order to buy Monoprix. The concessions were imposed after a probe into the deal, which lands another 50 percent of Monoprix in the hands of Groupe Casino. The shares were previously owned by Monoprix’s joint venture partner Galeries Lafayette. The regulator investigated the food retail market of France in 2012; that probe resulted in the findings that highlighted Groue Casino’s significant control of the market especially in Paris, where the company dominates more than three times the market share of its closest competitor, Carrefour.

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