Romania’s Competition Council has approved French retailer Carrefour’s takeover of the Billa supermarket chain from its German competitor REWE.

However, the French retailer needs to give up two Carrefour Market stores and one Billa supermarket in Braila, eastern Romania, where it would have reached a dominant position following the transaction.

According to the agreement, Carrefour Romania will acquire 86 Billa stores, namely a total sale surface of 83,000 sqm, minus the three stores in Braila it needs to give up.

Carrefour has 138 stores, with 29 hypermarkets and 109 supermarkets, as well as an online store in Romania. The group had sales of EUR 1.39 billion and 10,280 employees last year, according to official data from the Finance Ministry.

Billa Romania’s sales were EUR 340 million and the company had over 3,100 employees. With this acquisition, Carrefour gets closer to its German competitor Kaufland, the biggest retailer in Romania with over EUR 2 billion in sales in 2015.

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editor@romania-insider.com