Carrefour is preparing to make an offer to acquire Guyenne et Gascogne, one of the French retailer's franchise partners, which runs hypermarkets and supermarkets in the southwest of France, as well as in Spain.
Guyenne et Gascogne currently boasts six Carrefour hypermarkets and 28 Carrefour Market supermarkets and also has a share in Sogara with Carrefour, with 13 hypermarkets.
Its Spanish subsidiary Centros Comerciales Carrefour generated a turnover of €9.9bn in 2010.
For Carrefour, this would be an important takeover, not least in order to strengthen its position in the southwest of France, where Carrefour has seen its Coop Atlantique franchisee switch to rival Système U.
It would also be a boon for Carrefour's operations in Spain, where the company looks set to sell its stake in Altis, its franchise venture with Spanish retailer Eroski.
