Secret conversations about Carrefour’s takeover. Will the French giant change the owner?

According to the portal dlahandlu.pl, citing the French website La Lettre and Retaildetail.eu, at the end of 2024 Ahold Delhaize began confidential conversations with the Carrefour network, which aimed to take over the French giant.

The talks were conducted without the participation of banks or advisers – directly between the highest management of both companies. Ahold Delhaize was represented by the president of Frans Muller, while Carrefour was attended by President Alexandre Bompard, financial director Matthieu Malige and Secretary General Laurent Vallée.

Carrefour to take over?

Talks regarding the takeover of Carrefour ended quickly and without a specific result at the beginning of 2025. One of the main reasons was the fear of excessive market concentration, especially in Belgian and Romanian markets. In addition, the French authorities traditionally show caution against the acquisitions of large native companies by foreign entities.

However, the information about the conversations held indicates that Carrefour is in a difficult position and is increasingly seen as the possible purpose of the takeover. Although in terms of revenues Carrefour (EUR 80 billion) almost matches the Ahold Delhaize (90 billion euros) group, its stock valuation is much lower – it is around EUR 10 billion, which is only one third of the value of the Dutch competitor (EUR 30 billion).

It is worth recalling that as early as 2021 the Canadian Couche-tard tried to take over Carrefour, but also then the transaction was blocked for political reasons.

As emphasized by the website forhandlu.pl, so far none of the companies have officially referred to media reports.

Carrefour and Ahold Delhaize – two commercial powers

Ahold Delhaize is an international trading group based in the Netherlands, founded in 2016 as a result of the mernders’ merger Ahold and Belgian Delhaize. Currently, the company manages a network of over 7,000 stores and employs over 400,000 employees.

In the first quarter of 2025, Carrefour recorded a 2.9 % increase in comparable sales, achieving revenues of 22.7 billion euros, which was in line with the expectations of the market. The network currently has over 15.3 thousand commercial outlets around the world.