SOFIA (Bulgaria), June 15 (SeeNews) - French retailer Carrefour is selling its stake in its joint venture with Greece's Marinopoulos, which becomes the exclusive franchisee of Carrefour in Southeast Europe, Carrefour said on Friday.
"The Carrefour and Marinopoulos groups have decided to entrust the management of operations for Carrefour Marinopoulos (Greece and Cyprus) to the Marinopoulos group and agreed on measures allowing their joint venture to meet the challenges of Greece’s prevailing economic environment," Carrefour said in a press release on its website. "Carrefour Marinopoulos will thus become the exclusive franchisee of Carrefour in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria as well as Albania and other Balkan countries"
As a result, the Carrefour group should record a charge of approximately 220 million euro ($277 million) under discontinued activities.
The transaction will be completed in the coming weeks, subject to authorization by the relevant antitrust authorities.
Carrefour Marinopoulos was set up in 1999 as a 50-50 joint venture between the Greek Marinopoulos Group and the French Carrefour Group.
($=0.7937 euro)