The Competition Council has approved a deal in which the Carrefour group intends to acquire Romania Hypermarche, the company that operates the Cora hypermarket chain and Cora Urban convenience stores in Romania, the authority announced on Tuesday.

As part of the analysis conducted by the antimonopoly agency, the impact of the operation on the choice of manufacturers/suppliers of food and non-food products was assessed.

• “So it was discovered that suppliers have options for product placement and other store formats, including local supermarket chains, cash&carry, traditional trade, etc.
• In addition, the presence of important competitors in this market creates significant competitive pressure not to raise prices for consumers, Carrefour competes with Schwarz group (Kaufland&Lidl), Auchan, Profi, Penny and Mega Image.
• In addition, the analysis targeted consumer coverage areas around Cora stores, namely 10 hypermarkets in Bucharest, Bacău, Constanta, Drobeta-Turnu-Severin, Cluj-Napoca, Ploiesti and 8 Cora Urban department stores in Bucharest and Chiaina (Ilfov County) , taking into account a zone of up to 10 minutes by car around hypermarkets/supermarkets and a zone of up to 10 minutes on foot and by car around shops.” – says the Competition Council.

The competition authority also says it has not received any comments from the business community about the possible withdrawal from the market or the implications of the withdrawal following this transaction.

After analysis, the Competition Council found that this operation does not create a significant obstacle to effective competition in the Romanian market or part of it, and that there are no serious doubts about its compatibility with a normal competitive environment.

• The transaction was initially analyzed by the European Commission, given that it involved companies operating in several countries, but since the Romanian market was most affected by the transaction, the Romanian competition authority asked to take over the case. , and the European Forum approved the analysis at the national level.

The Carrefour Group operates retail stores in Romania in the form of hypermarkets (Carrefour), supermarkets (Carrefour Market), convenience stores (Carrefour Express) and discounters (Supeco).

Romania Hypermarche SA is part of the Belgian Louis Delhaize group, which is mainly engaged in retail trade. In Romania, it owns “Cora” hypermarkets and “Cora Urban” stores.

The decision of the competition authority will be published on the website of the competition authority after the removal of confidential information.

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