Carrefour, France's biggest grocer, agreed to sell its Malaysian operations to Aeon, Japan's largest retailer, for €250 million (HK$2.5 billion).
The sale was effective immediately, Carrefour said in a statement. The retailer is the fourth-biggest in Malaysia, where it had 26 stores and €400 million in sales in the 12 months to June 30, the company said.
Carrefour is cutting jobs and exiting overseas markets it doesn't dominate to generate cash and cut debt as part of a three-year turnaround plan formulated by chief executive Georges Plassat. Aeon is expanding overseas amid a shrinking population in its home market.
Malaysia will become Aeon's South-East Asian headquarters, the company said yesterday.
The Japanese retailer plans to have 100 stores in Malaysia by 2020 as it ramps up expansion across the region.
"Asia is one of the very few areas where we can expect to see greater development as far as potential economic growth is concerned," Nagahisa Oyama, chief executive of Aeon's Asean business said in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.