Carrefour has entered into a binding agreement with NewPrinces Group with a view to selling all its activities in Italy, the food retailer announced in the margins of strong quarterly results.
Loss-making activities
With the sale of its Italian operations, including 1,188 stores, Carrefour says it wants to improve its profitability and cash flow and focus on its core markets. Last year, the Italian branch posted an operating loss of 67 million euros and a negative free cash flow of 180 million euros, in a particularly difficult economic and competitive context.
The prospective buyer, NewPrinces Group (formerly Newlat Group), is currently a producer and distributor of food products in various categories and is now taking its first steps in the retail sector. After the acquisition, the company will become the second largest food group in Italy, with a turnover of 6.9 billion euros. NewPrinces Group has announced it wants to relaunch former supermarket chain GS (which disappeared after being acquired by Carrefour).
Net loss
The news of the transaction, which will be completed before the end of the year, was announced with solid quarterly results elsewhere: Carrefour’s comparable sales rose by 4.4 %, following a 2.9 % increase in the first quarter. In its French domestic market, comparable growth was 2.1 %. The retailer is seeing volumes increase again, after years of decline. The retailer also performed strongly in Spain and Belgium, as well as in Brazil. In Poland, the retailer is struggling due to fierce competition.
In the first half of the year, Carrefour posted sales of 46.6 billion euros, compared to 44.9 billion euros in the same period a year earlier. EBITDA was up 1.1 % at 1.9 billion euros, but the bottom line was a loss of 401 million euros, compared to a net profit of 25 million euros in the first half of 2024. According to the company, this was partly due to the consolidation of Cora & Match in the first half of 2025.
