Carrefour proposes buyout of Brazilian grocery unit Atacadao

FRENCH grocer Carrefour submitted a proposal for a take-private of its Brazilian subsidiary Atacadao.

Atacadao said that its management had received a proposal from Carrefour – its controlling shareholder – that would make it a wholly owned subsidiary. The statement confirmed an earlier report by Bloomberg News that Paris-listed Carrefour was working with advisers on a deal to acquire the Atacadao shares that it does not already own.

Carrefour is offering 7.70 Brazilian reais each for Atacadao’s shares, representing a 19 per cent premium to their closing price on Monday (Feb 10).

Shares of the Brazilian unit, which went public in 2017, jumped as much as 13 per cent on Tuesday before trading was halted in Sao Paulo. After trading resumed, the stock soared as much as 19 per cent and was up 15 per cent to 7.45 reais a share, giving the company a market value of about 15.8 billion reais (S$3.7 billion).

Carrefour owns nearly 70 per cent of Atacadao, also known as Carrefour Brasil, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Under the proposal, Atacadao would be delisted from Novo Mercado market segment and would become a category B issuer, according to the statement. Atacadao shares would be merged into a Brazilian company wholly owned by its controlling shareholder, with each common share of Atacadao replaced by one class A, B or C share issued by that company.

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Bloomberg News reported in November that Carrefour was in the early stages of studying ways to boost its valuation, more than three years after Alimentation Couche-Tard abandoned talks to merge with the company. BLOOMBERG