Carrefour to sell Thai stores to Casino

PARIS, (Reuters) - France’s Carrefour said it had agreed to sell 42 stores in Thailand to domestic rival Casino for an enterprise value of 868 million euros ($1.19 billion).

Carrefour, the world’s No.2 retailer after Wal-Mart and Europe’s biggest retailer, said this corresponded to 120 percent of the net sales of the business and to 13 times EBITDA.

The transaction will boost the earnings of Casino’s Thai unit Big C in 2011, Casino said in a separate statement. Carrefour wants to sell its shops in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand to focus on markets where it holds leading positions.

Carrefour -- which operates 42 stores in Thailand including 34 hypermarkets -- said it has a 6 percent market share in the country, net sales of 723 million euros and EBITDA of 67 million over a 12-month period to end-June 2010.