Saade continued to expand his empire. The owner of the Marseille shipowner CMA CGM, his family has acquired a stake in Carrefour with around 4%, becoming the second shareholder, the mass distribution giant announced this Wednesday, November 12.
Billionaire Rodolphe Saadé will join the group’s board of directors on December 1, replacing Eduardo Rossi, who represented Peninsula, the holding company of the family of Brazilian billionaire Abilio Diniz, who died in February 2024.
Becoming Carrefour’s largest shareholder in March 2024, Peninsula recently returned to second place with an 8.5% stake, which it eventually sold, the distributor announced in a separate press release this Wednesday. The Galfa Company, owned by the Moulin-Houzé family (Galeries Lafayette), remains Carrefour’s largest shareholder, with approximately 9.5%.
To acquire a stake in France’s second-largest food distributor, the Saadé family created a new entity, Carrix, which it co-owns with CMA CGM, Carrefour said in a press release. He will replace Peninsula as independent director “for the remainder of his term of office, namely until the General Assembly in 2028” And “will be a member of the strategic committee of the Board of Directors”, added.
Quoted in the press release, said Rodolphe Saadé “nice to enter the capital” from group play “major role in food and distribution”. “By joining the board of directors, I hope (…) to support the group’s development in the long term,” he argued.
“Rodolphe Saadé’s commitment, vision and experience will make a major contribution to our governance, the development of our group and the creation of its values,” commented Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard.
This was the Saadé family’s first attempt at mass distribution. In May, they entered the capital of Pathé, with the ambition to accelerate the production of films and series internationally.
Rodolphe Saadé also bought the newspaper in 2022 Provence, thereby laying the foundation for the media group that has developed since newspapers Tribune And Sunday Tribune, but also BFMTV, RMC and Brut.
In October, Carrefour announced that it had achieved a turnover of 22.6 billion euros in the third quarter, down 1.5% due to exchange rate changes in Latin America.
