Ginette Moulin, Gérard Mulliez and Bernard Arnault.
Ginette Moulin, 94, Gérard Mulliez, 90, and Bernard Arnault, 72, are the patriarchs of three of the most emblematic families in France.These three sagas have played a very relevant role in both the negotiations and in the subsequent breakdown of the fusion between Carrefour and Auchan.
The Moulin are the main shareholders of Carrefour, in addition to owners of the famous galleries Lafayette, the Mulliez family controls a large business group that includes Auchan (Alcampo), Leroy Merlin, Decathlon, Kiabi, Norauto, Flunch and Boulanger.And Bernard Arnault is the third richest person in the world - after Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk - through their luxury hólding LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy).Bernard Arnault was a Reference shareholder from Carrefour since 2007, but in August of this year he threw the towel and sold all his participation (6%) assuming 60%losses.
And is that Carrefour's stock evolution has been quite negative in recent years, the result of a business model - that of hypermarket - that presents clear symptoms of exhaustion.Carrefour and Auchan have been successful companies thanks to the hypermarket boom, but now they suffer the perfect storm.The consumer is no longer willing to travel several kilometers by car to spend Saturday afternoon pushing a cart through endless halls.Now he prefers proximity supermarkets such as Mercadona, BM or Savoramás, and if he looks for very cheap prices, he has the option of Lidl and Aldi.In addition, the market is shaken by the growth of online sale and the emergence of the Amazon giant.
Carrefour and Auchan need to take a radical turn to their business model and have already begun to do so.Carrefour has stopped its plans to grow in hypermarkets and in parallel it is opening hundreds of supermarkets and convenience stores.Alcampo, meanwhile, has just announced that 300 online orders collection points will open in the center of the cities, which will also have a small establishment.
It is in this forced reconversion process in which the corporate movements that live in recent months are the two French distribution giants are framed.First there was an attempt to fusion between Carrefour and Casino -another of the large Gaulous Commerce groups, but more focused on the supermarket -which caused the distancing between the Moulin and Arnault families, which were the Reference shareholders of Carrefour.The Moulin opposed the purchase of Casino, while Bernard Arnault saw in this corporate operation a way that Carrefour won size and thus optimize their investment.
Already in January of this year, the owner of LVMH also defended the friendly proposal made by the Canadian Couche-tard company to buy Carrefour.On this occasion the veto came from the French government, which, showing its transnochado chauvinism, said that "we will not give in foreign groups one of the great French distributors".His argument was to defend the protection of "Food Sovereignty" of France.
In the absence of future options for Carrefour, Bernard Arnault decided to leave the company, even with losses, and allocate the 700 million of its investment to buy companies from the world of luxury, which provide more profitability and less dislikes.
After Arnault's departure from Carrefour's shareholders, it is when contacts with Auchan begin for a possible integration of both groups.Although such an operation could have competition problems in France, it would also serve to optimize its structures in certain countries such as Spain, Romania and Poland.
Auchan, through the Alcampo brand, has a lower presence in the Spanish market and could transfer its establishments to Carrefour, which would consolidate its position.This exchange would have an opposite sense in Romania and Poland, where Auchan could be reinforced with the assets that Carrefour possesses in these countries.
But for such an agreement, two rival family clans would agree: the Moulin de Carrefour and the Mulliez de Auchan.Both companies are also very different.Carrefour quotes on the stock market, while Auchan is a non -quoted family company and that also boasts of it and does not want to break its particular management mode.The founder of Auchan, Gérard Mulliez, has just affirmed that "we will never sell the company", but at 90 years he is no longer in charge of making decisions although his voice is taken into account by the moral authority that he has.The Mulliez family is aware of Auchan's weak competitive position in front of his rivals and knows that the company's future goes through some type of alliance.
The negotiations for the agreement have jumped through the air because of the great valuation differences that the Moulin (Carrefour) and the Mulliez (Auchan) have of their respective groups for the fusion, since an exchange was contemplated in the pactshareholding.The Moulin family, with the Nonagenaria Ginette Moulin to the head, described as a value of 16.800 million euros that the Mulliez gave Carrefour.
The fusion would have created the number one of the distribution in France with a quota of 29% and surpassing the current Leclerc leader.In Spain they would distance themselves from Dia and Lidl and would be the second group, with more than 12% share, behind the 24% of Mercadona.
It is increasingly urgent that Moulin and Mulliez families agree.
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