The sale of the Portuguese operations of Carrefour

Abstract

In 2007, Carrefour decided to put up for sale their Portuguese operations, consisted of 12 hypermarkets, 11 licenses to open new stores and 8 gas stations. Many things were speculated during the process, but in the end Sonae ended up buying the operations for 600 million euros. This case study provides insights about the food retailing market at the time and an overview of the top 3 players in Portugal, Sonae, Auchan and Jerónimo Martins. The main goal of this thesis is a reflection about the advantages, disadvantages and what would happen if any of the other two would have bought it instead of Sonae. The financial situation of the companies is analysed, as well as their investments, their assets and their location, their portfolios and their strategies. In the end, there will be presented a conclusion about which company would have benefited the most from this deal. It is given in the case all the information the reader needs to have a clear vision of the market at the time, the companies and to draw his own conclusions about what happened and what could have happened.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Simão Pires (Supervisor)