Retrenchment in Greece - Carrefour sells out for one euro

The Greek economy contracted 6.5% in the first quarter of 2012. Carrefour, the massive french supermarket which is the world’s second largest retailer, has been operating in Greece in a joint venture with local partner Marinopoulos since 1999 and had 41 hypermarkets, 287 supermarkets and 479 convenience stores in Greece and Cyprus. They made 2.2 billion euros of sales there last year, but are thought to have made a loss of 440 million euros on that revenue.

A fall in sales of a further 16% in the first quarter of this year has now convinced Georges Plassat (a new CEO who took up his post last month) that it is worth taking a loss of 220 million euros to get rid of the business by selling it to the Joint Venture partner for just one euro, and the stock market clearly agrees with him as shares in Carrefour rose by 2.8% in Paris. Here is an example of a new CEO quickly making a decision to mark a change in strategy. Reuters quotes an un-named analyst who implies that the company needs to focus on its core business: “Greece was a market which had been dragging on them. They have their hands full with other projects. It’s better for them to concentrate on saving their French operations.”

M&S took a similar decision last month when they took a 44.9 million pound write-off on their Greek business. French bank Credit Agricole is transferring assets to France from its Greek subsidiary Emporiki bank. Given the deep uncertainty about what will happen to the Greek economy, a business strategy of retrenchment is looking like one which may gain momentum amongst overseas investors.