The French group Carrefour has signed an agreement to acquire the Brazilian supermarket chain Atacadão for US$ 1.09 billion. With this purchase Carrefour becomes Brazil's leader in terms of sales in the area of supermarkets and hypermarkets displacing the Brazilian group Pão de Açúcar from the top position.

Last year Carrefour had US$ 5.2 billion in sales in the country while Atacadão sold US$ 2 billion, representing a 4% market share

Wal-Mart and Pão de Açúcar were also trying to buy Atacadão, which ended up being swallowed for US$ 1.1 billion by the French company. Atacadão had been on the market for sale for three years and most experts in the area were betting that Wal-Mart would be the final winner.

Atacadão is a leading operator of discount hypermarkets in Brazil, operating 34 stores across the country, of which 17 are located in Sao Paulo state. Atacadão's property portfolio consists of 214,000 m², of which over 90% is freehold.

This acquisition is part of Carrefour's strategy to reinforce its presence in key growth markets through a locally adapted multi format approach. With this investment in discount hypermarkets, Carrefour is able to reach a complementary segment of the existing customer base to hypermarkets, supermarkets (Carrefour Bairro), and hard discount (Dia).

Carrefour's operations in Brazil consist of 109 hypermarkets, 34 Carrefour Bairro and 258 Dia hard discount stores.