French retail giant Carrefour is reportedly planning to take a close look at Ahold’s Spanish operations, which the troubled Dutch retailer recently announced it planned to sell.
“Carrefour would be interested, depending on how Ahold wishes to sell its activities in Spain,” an anonymous industry source told Reuters.
The source said it was not clear whether Ahold was selling the operations as a unit or region by region.
Antitrust regulations would likely prevent Carrefour from obtaining the whole of Ahold’s Spanish business, but the French retailer could strengthen its operations in certain areas.
Carrefour is number one in the Spanish hypermarket and discount stores sector, but is relatively weak in the supermarkets business.
Ahold has around 650 supermarkets in Spain, while Carrefour had, at the end of 2002, 121 hypermarkets, 186 supermarkets and 2,511 discount stores in Spain, reported Reuters.
