What should I know before sell and buy Carrefour stock?
The Carrefour group is now one of the leaders in mass retailing and has merged with the French group Promoès, although it has rapidly expanded across Europe. More than that, it is currently the second largest retailer in the world, just after the American giant WalMart.
This group launched the first hypermarkets in 1963, but it also owns a large number of smaller commercial structures such as supermarkets or certain superettes.
The group has more than 12,300 stores worldwide, including 1,376 hypermarkets under the Carrefour and Atacadao banners, 3,243 supermarkets under the Carrefour Bairro, Carrefour Market and Supeco banners, 7,327 convenience stores under the Carrefour City, Carrefour Express, Carrefour Contact, Carrefour Montagne, Carrefour Bio, 8 à Huit and Proxi banners, 354 cash-and-carry stores, including Promocash, Docks Market and Grossiper, as well as a number of e-commerce sites, such as Carrefour.com.es, Carrefour.pl, Carrefour.ro, Carrefour.com.cn and Carrefour.com.tw.fr, Carrefour.es, Carrefour.eu, Carrefour.pl, Carrefour.ro, Carrefour.com.cn and Carrefour.com.tw.
Carrefour's annual turnover is over 76 billion euros. France accounts for 46.9% of this figure, the rest of Europe for 27.7%, Latin America for 18.2% and Asia for 7.2%.
Turnover increased significantly in 1991 following the acquisition of Montlaur and Euromarché, in 1999 with the acquisition of Comptoirs Modernes, in 2000 with the merger with Promedès and in 2001 with the acquisition of the Belgian and Italian activities.
Carrefour is part of the French national stock market index CAC 40.
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