REUTERS NEXT-Foreign takeover of Carrefour a 'major difficulty' for govt, says Le Maire

"Carrefour is a very strong company and I fully trust Carrefour to improve its model and to develop a new distribution model, but having Carrefour being bought by a foreign company would be a major difficulty for all of us," Le Maire said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference on Thursday. In a surprise move, Quebec-based Couche-Tard said on Wednesday it submitted a non-binding 20 euros per share offer for the French grocery group, largely in cash, valuing the French company at 16.2 billion euros ($19.72 billion).

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said a foreign company purchasing supermarket retailer Carrefour would be a "major difficulty" for the government because of the need to guarantee food security for citizens. "Carrefour is a very strong company and I fully trust Carrefour to improve its model and to develop a new distribution model, but having Carrefour being bought by a foreign company would be a major difficulty for all of us," Le Maire said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference on Thursday.

In a surprise move, Quebec-based Couche-Tard said on Wednesday it submitted a non-binding 20 euros per share offer for the French grocery group, largely in cash, valuing the French company at 16.2 billion euros ($19.72 billion). For more coverage from the Reuters Next conference please click here or www.reuters.com/business/reuters-next To watch Reuters Next live, visit https://www.reutersevents.com/events/next/register.php