The Competition Council authorized Billa’s takeover by Carrefour | Progresiv

Six months after Carrefour announced the takeover of Billa chain, the Competition Council authorized the merger estimated at 96-97 million euros. Following the analysis, the Competition Council found that in Braila geographical area the operation could lead to the strengthening of the market position of Carrefour with the effect of reducing consumer’s choice. In this situation, there was the possibility that the transaction would have led to higher food prices in the area. As a result, the transaction was approved with the condition of observing certain voluntary commitments assumed by Carrefour. Thus, Carrefour had committed to assign three supermarkets active in Braila, respectively two Carrefour Market stores and one Billa store.

Carrefour will not involve in the assigned activities for a significant period of at least 10 years. The assignment will be carried out as a transfer of activity without interruption for each store individually or all together. At the same time, Carrefour will make all efforts to maintain economic viability and competitiveness of the divested business. Carrefour will be required to provide to the Competition Council the information on potential buyers, but also to obtain prior approval of the competition authority on the designated buyer.

In other analysed areas, there were not identified competition concerns given that there are more competitors on these markets.

The Carrefour-Billa transaction is in terms of value the third largest on the local retail market after Auchan-Real (the French took over 20 Real hypermarkets) and Lidl - Plus (part of the Schwarz group, the Germans from Lidl took over the 107 Plus stores).

Billa operates 86 supermarkets nationwide, which have a total sale of 83,000 square meters and is owned by German group Rewe. Billa supermarket chain ended 2015 with a net profit of 5.18 million lei, up by approximately 120% over the previous year when the net result was 2.34 million lei. In terms of turnover, Billa ended last year with sales of 1.5 billion lei, up by 7% compared to the previous year, according to data published on the Ministry of Finance.

Carrefour currently owns 192 stores nationwide including 29 Carrefour hypermarkets, 109 Market supermarkets, 43 Express proximity stores, 10 Contact convenience stores and an e-commerce website: www.carrefour-online.ro. They are joined by four other stores operating under the Supeco banner. The French ended the financial year 2015 with a turnover of 6.74 billion lei and a profit of 127 million lei, results that rank them second among the top retailers in 2015, after German chain Kaufland.