Brussels, 07/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - According to the French press, Carrefour and Promodes proposed to the European Commission to sell assets so that the Commission approves their merger. According to this source, the French distribution giants could sell off ten establishments in France and Spain (through their Pryca and Continent subsidiary) and in Italy. The European Commission must give its opinion, next 25 January, on the merger and could give a verdict, earlier, on the return of certain operation aspects towards French and Spanish anti-trust jurisdictions.
The merger will create the world's second largest retailer behind Walmart, and will have more than 9,000 shops in Europe with a turnover of EUR 52 billion.
Certain sources close to the European Commission feel that it will without a doubt decide next 26 January to open a four month in-depth study of this operation. The procedures presently in effect foresees, as we know, two phases: at the end of the first (whose length is, in principle, four days), the Commission can authorise an operation that has been notified to it, when I notes that there are no competition problems; in the opposite scenario, it can open an "in-depth investigation" for which it has four months. The observers feel that this will be the case for the Carrefour/Promodes merger, when the size of the competition difficulties are taken into account. The four months should especially enable the Commission to define the conditions to which the merger would be authorised.