Carrefour brings another 60m euros for Romanian operations

Carrefour Romania, the biggest player on the hypermarket
market, with 1.02bn-euro turnover in 2009, has approved the signing
of a 60m-euro borrowing contract from the Dutch subsidiary, with
this as the fourth significant capital injection in the Romanian
subsidiary in the past four years.
According to existing information, Carrefour Romania in
2006-2009 borrowed around 300m euros from the Dutch subsidiary, so
that the French group funded its expansion both through banking and
intra-group loans.
Carrefour representatives had not specified the destination of
the money raised through the 60m-euro loan by edition close.
A possibility would be for the expansion process to be
resumed. Carrefour now has the most cautious development strategy
on the hypermarket segment, having announced only one opening for
next year, in Colosseum shopping centre of Bucharest.
Three of its rivals, Cora, Auchan and Kaufland, are currently
taking advantage of the falling prices for land and declining rents
in shopping centres and are signing contracts after contracts to
gain market share. Carrefour is part of a group with almost
100bn-euro turnover in 2009, which means access to rapid and cheap
funding sources.