Carrefour in talks for 100m-euro loan to fund expansion

France”s Hyparlo Group, the owner of the Carrefour network in Romania, is in talks to obtain a syndicated loan worth 100 million euros, one of this year”s largest financing arrangements on the commercial segment.

“We haven”t signed anything yet, but I believe we will finalise the loan agreement in the following weeks. This is a syndicated loan worth around 100 million euros, which will be released by several banking groups active on the Romanian market,” says Jean Michel Arlaud, general manager of Hyparlo.

He did not reveal any details of the conditions of the loan.

The deal will not be the largest financing to be granted on the real estate market this year, after Bank Austria Creditanstalt and HVB Romania granted Anchor Grup a loan of over 120 million euros for the construction of an office building and the refinancing of the Bucuresti Mall and Plaza Romania trade centres in Bucharest. Hyparlo”s new loan will be used to expand the Carrefour hypermarket network on the Romanian market over the following years, Arlaud explained. At least two new stores are expected to be built per year.

“This is not the first syndicated loan we are taking out in Romania. We already took a loan of 50 million euros to fund this year”s expansion,” the Hyparlo manager said. The company yesterday opened its fifth store on the domestic market – in Ploiesti – in the wake 22 million euros in investments.

This is the group”s second store outside the capital city and will allow the French to bring in some profit for the first time since entering the Romanian market.