France’s anti-trust watchdog has cleared Intermarche’s move to local retail venture Altis – but has asked the company to offload five stores to assuage competition concerns.

The country’s competition authority announced on Friday (6 April) it had cleared Intermarche’s acquisition of Altis – a 50/50 venture ran by Carrefour and Spanish retailer Eroski.

Altis operated six hypermarkets and ten supermarkets in south-west France on a franchise basis for Carrefour, as well as four hard discount stores. It generated sales of EUR499m (US$659.8m) in 2010, according to Carrefour.

However, France’s competition watchdog has asked Intermarche to sell five Carrefour Market outlets.