Politics Crashes $20 Billion Canadian Shopping Trip to Paris
- Couche-Tard’s Carrefour bid couldn’t overcome French objection
- Finance minister said to have learned of deal via text message
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Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. founder Alain Bouchard hoped to salvage a $20 billion offer for Carrefour SA when he arrived at the French Finance Ministry, whose headquarters juts out over the Seine like a beached aircraft carrier in eastern Paris.
After being kept waiting for a brief audience with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Bouchard got the message: The proposed deal was dead on arrival, torpedoed by French political opposition.