Carrefour is to sell EUR 1.5 bn of property to private and institutional investors this year as part of the French hypermarket group's new strategic plan to make real estate its second core business. 'Property will become a new area of expertise,' Carrefour said during the presentation of its 2007 results. To that end, Carrefour said real estate experts had been recruited to the group and the appropriate corporate governance structures were being studied. The company said the shaping of a pan-European property vehicle is at an advanced stage. Carrefour placed the group's gross asset value of its property portfolio before taxes at EUR 20 bn to EUR 24 bn, of which 60% is Carrefour Property.
Carrefour is to sell EUR 1.5 bn of property to private and institutional investors this year as part of the French hypermarket group's new strategic plan to make real estate its second core business. 'Property will become a new area of expertise,' Carrefour said during the presentation of its 2007 results. To that end, Carrefour said real estate experts had been recruited to the group and the appropriate corporate governance structures were being studied. The company said the shaping of a pan-European property vehicle is at an advanced stage. Carrefour placed the group's gross asset value of its property portfolio before taxes at EUR 20 bn to EUR 24 bn, of which 60% is Carrefour Property.
Carrefour said it is in no rush to hold an initial public offering of Carrefour Property given the current market conditions, but added it expected to sell between EUR 1 bn and EUR 1.5 bn to strategic and private investors in the fourth quarter of 2008. When market conditions permit, the retailer says it would go forward with an IPO and envisages the value of its total placement to be around EUR 3 bn.
