Carrefour to buy Brazilian retailer from Advent and Walmart

Carrefour is buying the third-largest food retailer in Brazil.

The French retail giant said that its Carrefour Brazil unit has entered into an agreement with Advent International and Walmart for the acquisition of Grupo BIG Brasil in a deal that values the retailer at 1.1 billion euros, or $1.3 billion. The transaction strengthens Carrefour’s already strong presence in Brazil, which ranks as its second-largest market.

Grupo BIG operates a multi-format network of 387 stores.  Carrefour Brazil operates 489 stores. Together, the companies have about $18 million in annual revenue.

“Our group is on the offensive,” said Carrefour chairman and CEO Alexandre Bompard. “The acquisition of the BIG Group is a major transformation movement for Carrefour Brazil. In this continental country with immense development prospects, we have accentuated our leadership in the food distribution market over the past 3 years, and BIG will further strengthen it with very complementary formats and locations.”

Once the deal is completed, Carrefour would own 67.7% of Groupo BIG. Advent and Walmart would have a combined 5.6% stake. Walmart had previously pared back its investment in Brazil, selling a controlling stake in Grupo Big to Advent in 2018.

The deal comes several months after the French government said it was opposed to a possible acquisition by Carrefour of global convenience-store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard, which is based in Canada.