New Princes buys Carrefour Italia supermarkets
1027 outlets, 642 of which are direct, will change hands at the former Newlat. The transaction is worth one billion euros. The Gs brand will be relaunched
by Carlo Festa
2' min read
2' min read
Twist in the sale of Carrefour Italy. Buying the Italian operations of the transalpine retail giant, which is ready to exit the Italian market, is in fact New Princes Group, the former Newlat that belongs to the Mastrolia family. New Princes Group will take over the entire Italian perimeter of Carrefour: that is, 100 per cent of Carrefour Italia, including the three companies under the parent company's umbrella, namely Carrefour Property, Gs Spa and Carrefour Finance, the factoring company.
A total of 1027 shops will change hands, of which 642 direct and 385 franchised. The geographical breakdown of Carrefour Italy shows some regions, especially those in the North, with a greater presence of outlets: in the lead is Lombardy with 314 outlets, Piedmont with 202 supermarkets, followed by Latium with 195, Liguria with 161, Emilia Romagna with 49, Tuscany with 54 and followed by Valle d'Aosta and Sardinia.
This is a business with 10 thousand direct and 8 thousand indirect employees, for a total of 18 thousand employees. The transaction will be worth approximately one billion euro in enterprise value: divided between 400 million euro valuation of the real estate and 600 million for the business. The total turnover of Carrefour Italia is worth about EUR 3.7 billion with an Ebitda (including real estate activities) of EUR 115 million. Carrefour Italia has decided to exit Italy, a historic market for the French giant, but one that is paying the price for the lower consumer spending: costly for the large-scale retail giant in terms of losses archived in recent years, amid failed attempts at revitalisation: the last financial year's red was €150 million.
The aim of the new owner is a relaunch of the business. For the Italian company, which changed its name from Newlat Food to New Princes Group following the acquisition of the British company Princes Limited in the spring of 2024, this is another transformational acquisition with the creation of a third leg, the large-scale retail business, after the food and dairy operations.
The bet is now to create an integrated supply chain between production, on the food front, and distribution. For three years, the Carrefour brand will be maintained, which will then be replaced by the Gs brand, an Italian large-scale food retailer that operated until 2010, when it was replaced by the transalpine brand. Financial advisors for the transaction were Rothschild, on behalf of Carrefour, and Bnp Paribas for New Princes. The legal advisors were BonelliErede and Legance.
