PARIS (Reuters) – French supermarket group Carrefour’s CEO Alexandre Bompard is examining options for sector consolidation and talks have taken place with the family behind the Auchan chain of stores, French daily Le Monde reported on Thursday.
Both Carrefour and Auchan declined to comment on reports of talks between the two companies over a possible deal.
The French finance ministry also declined to comment.
Shares in Carrefour were down 0.63% at 0940 GMT.
Carrefour said in June it had started considering possible consolidation, divestitures or tie-ups of its foreign subsidiaries, but had not made a decision to sell any assets.
In January, Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard dropped its 16.2 billion euro ($19.57 billion) bid for Carrefour after the French government opposed the deal, citing food security concerns.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Gwenaelle Barzic, Sophie Louet and Danilo Masoni; writing by Matthieu Protard; editing by Jason Neely)
