Private Equity Firms Will Bend for a $21 Billion Grocery Deal
Private equity may team up with French retailer Auchan in a bid for rival Carrefour. It would be an awkward marriage of convenience.
Looking for a deal.
Source: Bloomberg
It’s private equity to the rescue. French big-box retailer Auchan couldn’t quite make a good enough offer to buy peer Carrefour SA when it tried a takeover last year. Now buyout firms may be on hand to juice up the bid. Securing a deal would involve the buyers making compromises. A willingness to do so suggests some desperation to get a transaction done.
Auchan and Carrefour are both struggling to retain customers as shoppers move online, to convenience stores and to German discounters Aldi and Lidl. A tie-up would provide some respite, since together these titans would have considerable buying power in the French market. They could also cut marketing and head office expenses. As U.K. peer Tesco Plc likes to say: Every little helps.