Casino rejects merger attempt that Carrefour denies having done

PARIS (Reuters)-two of the biggest supermarket groups of France entered into a dispute on Monday, after the Casino announced have rejected an attempted merger of the biggest rival Carrefour, which Carrefour denied having done. Two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that there was a meeting in September between the 12 Chief Executive of Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard, and the Chief Executive of the Casino, Jean-Charles Naouri, to discuss a wide range of topics on opportunities for both. However, a French Government source said that the Government-which normally could be expected to be notified-was not aware of any negotiation of merger between the companies. The groups of supermarkets in France are looking for ways to increase profits after a prolonged price war at home, and are also under pressure to modernise to counter the moves of the online giant Amazon and others in the industry. Analysts said any merger between Carrefour and Casino should attract scrutiny from competition regulators, since the Carrefour is the second largest network of France, with 20% market share, and the Casino has nearly 12%. The Casino, whose stock fell this year due to concerns about your debt, said he was contacted by Carrefour in recent days about a possible Union, adding that your Board of Directors met on Sunday and "unanimously" decided to reject the approach. "The Board also recognized the barriers, in France and in Brazil, a combination with Carrefour, especially in terms of competition and employment," said the owner of the supermarket chain Monoprix and Geant in a statement. However, Carrefour-which, as the Casino, has a big business in Brazil-denied any approach, saying in a statement that he was surprised that the Board of Directors of the Casino might consider "a proposal for a merger that doesn't exist". "The difficulties faced by the Casino and your controlling shareholder should not cause nuisance communications, misleading and unfounded," said Carrefour.