Carrefour SA is in advanced talks to sell a controlling stake in its Taiwanese operations to its local minority partner Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), people familiar with the matter said.
Uni-President has emerged as the likeliest buyer for 60 percent of the French grocer’s business, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.
The Taiwanese food conglomerate, which has the right of first refusal for Carrefour’s stake, and the European firm are discussing details of a potential transaction including financing and antitrust, the people said.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
A deal could even be reached in the next few weeks, they said.
Talks are ongoing, no final decision has been made and other bidders remain interested in the assets, the people said.
Representatives for Carrefour and Uni-President declined to comment.
“We are handling this according to the script,” Uni-President chairman Alex Lo (羅智先) said when asked about a potential deal for the stake during an investors’ briefing on March 11.
“When timing is right, everyone will know,” Lo added.
Carrefour has been exploring a sale of its Taiwan unit in a potential deal that has drawn interest from firms including Carlyle Group Inc, CVC Capital Partners and Taiwanese conglomerate Far Eastern Group (遠東集團), Bloomberg News reported in October last year.
The unit could fetch an enterprise value of at least US$1.9 billion, people familiar with the matter said at the time.
Carrefour set up its first outlet in Taiwan in 1989, two years after establishing a joint venture with Uni-President, its Web site says.
The company has since expanded to more than 320 outlets.
Uni-President and its affiliates own about a 40 percent stake in Carrefour’s Taiwan unit.
From its origins as a flour mill in Tainan, Uni-President has expanded to become one of the largest food conglomerates in Asia, with businesses spanning from dairy and beverages to instant food, baking and logistics, its Web site says.
It also operates 7-Eleven convenience stores in Taiwan, Shanghai and the Philippines.
Carrefour, which has been the subject of takeover activity in the past few years, has been reviewing its global assets. In 2019, it agreed to sell an 80 percent stake in its China unit for US$698 million in cash to local retailer Suning.com Co (蘇寧).
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
When she was in fifth grade, Scarlett Goddard Strahan started to worry about getting wrinkles. By the time she turned 10, she and her friends were spending hours on ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube watching influencers tout products for achieving today’s beauty aesthetic: a dewy, “glowy,” flawless complexion. Goddard Strahan developed an elaborate skin care routine with facial cleansers, mists, hydrating masks and moisturizers. One night, her skin began to burn intensely and erupted in blisters. Heavy use of adult-strength products had wreaked havoc on her skin. Months later, patches of tiny bumps remain on her face, and her cheeks turn
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
RSS