After media and cinema, mass distribution: the CEO of shipowner CMA CGM, Rodolphe Saadé, and his family invited themselves to the capital of Carrefour, becoming the second shareholder of the French multinational.
Carrefour announced on Wednesday that the Saadé family had taken a 4% stake – an investment of around 400 million euros – in its capital and that Rodolphe Saadé would join its board of directors on December 1. He will replace Eduardo Rossi, who represents Peninsula shareholders, the holding company of the family of Brazilian billionaire Abilio Diniz who died in February 2024.
After becoming Carrefour’s largest shareholder in March 2024, Peninsula recently returned to second place with an 8.5% stake, which it ultimately sold, the distributor announced in a separate press release on 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 on the board of directors, where he will be represented by Rodolphe Saadé as independent director “for the remaining term” of this mandate “namely until the general meeting of 2028”. Carrix will also serve on the board’s strategic committee.
“Over time” support
Quoted in the press release, Rodolphe Saadé said he was “happy to take part” in the group which plays a “major role in food and distribution”. “By joining the board of directors, I hope (…) to support the development of the group in the long term,” added the French-Lebanese manager.
“Rodolphe Saadé’s commitment, vision and experience will make a major contribution to our governance, the development of our group and the creation of value,” commented Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard. This was the Saadé family’s first attempt at mass distribution. In May, it acquired a stake in cinema group Pathé, with the aim of accelerating the production of films and series internationally.
Rodolphe Saadé also bought the newspaper La Provence in 2022, thus laying the foundation for a media group that has since included the newspapers La Tribune and La Tribune Dimanche, as well as BFMTV, RMC and Brut. With this new investment in the French multinational, which does not exclude the possibility of becoming even stronger in the future, the Saadé family also joins a strong group in Brazil, one of Carrefour’s main markets besides France and Spain. In September 2024, CMA CGM announced the acquisition of the country’s largest port operator, Santos Brazil.
“This is a country with very strong potential where there is growth,” Rodolphe Saadé assured to justify this investment, which was made with his own funds.
Generating profitability
Carrefour will be able to reassure the market of the stability of its shareholders by providing partial compensation for Peninsula’s departure, which is expected to come four years after French billionaire Bernard Arnault, after 14 years of presence in the capital.
In October, Carrefour published turnover of 22.6 billion euros for the third quarter, down 1.5% due to exchange rate changes in Latin America. But distributor sales remained resilient, particularly in France despite “political uncertainty”.
Led since 2017 by Alexandre Bompard, whose mandate was renewed this summer for three years beyond 2026, Carrefour began a “portfolio review” at the start of the year to generate greater profitability. Its share price was under pressure last year. The price is currently moving around 13.25 euros. Launched this summer, Carrefour Italia sales should be effective by the end of the year.
Carrefour is also expanding its model to operate more franchise stores and lease-managed stores, a variant of franchising where the distributor remains the owner of the business. This strategy was attacked by the CFDT, which described it as a “disguised social plan”. The court will make a decision on November 21.
