French real estate group Argan is acquiring Cargo, the logistics real estate subsidiary of Carrefour. The deal includes 22 logistics sites worth €900m.
Cargo has been owned for several years by Carrefour - which owns 32 per cent of the shares - and a number of institutional investors. The real estate company operates 22 sites, covering over 1.1 million square metres. Those distribution centres are used to supply Carrefour shops in France.
Most of the distribution centres were recently developed; Carrefour took its logistics network in France by storm in recent years, with one of the sites even under construction and due for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Argan will pay 898 million euros for Cargo, of which 290 million will go to Carrefour in cash and Argan shares. Jean-Claude Le Lan, top executive of Argan, suspects it is the "most important deal in logistics real estate ever" in France.
For Carrefour, the sale is part of a restructuring plan. The multinational is forced to get rid of a number of non-strategic properties as the results of its French hypermarkets decline.
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