Carrefour needs to fund ways of selling part of its property portfolio without disturbing the French retailer's core business, its ceo Jose Luis Duran said on Thursday during a retail conference in Barcelona. 'If we can create shareholder value, yes. The question is how to create it without hurting the core business?' Duran told news agency Reuters at the sidelines of the World Retail Conference. 'How can we do it, without putting in danger the operating side of the business?'
Carrefour needs to fund ways of selling part of its property portfolio without disturbing the French retailer's core business, its ceo Jose Luis Duran said on Thursday during a retail conference in Barcelona. 'If we can create shareholder value, yes. The question is how to create it without hurting the core business?' Duran told news agency Reuters at the sidelines of the World Retail Conference. 'How can we do it, without putting in danger the operating side of the business?'
Carrefour's property assets entered the spotlight some two weeks ago when a French billionaire, Bernard Arnault, and a US private equity fund, Colony Capital, announced they had acquired a 9.1% stake in the world's second-biggest retailer by sales. The two new investors are pushing for the French group to release capital by selling properties, in a move aimed to boost shareholder value. Carrefour owns 6 million m2 of real estate. Some 80% of the property assets are in Western Europe and the remainder is in Latin America.
