Carrefour sells Malaysia stores to Japan's Aeon

Carrefour sells Malaysia stores to Japan's Aeon French retail giant Carrefour said Wednesday it had sold its network of stores in Malaysia to Japan's Aeon for for an enterprise value of 250 million euros ($324 million). "The transaction is part of Carrefour's strategy of refocusing on its core activities and allocating its resources to mature countries where it occupies strong and established positions and emerging markets where it has strong growth potential," the French retailer said in a statement. An enterprise value usually includes the value of the debt of the company being acquired minus cash in the business. Carrefour said Aeon would gain a leading position in the Malaysian market with the sale. With 26 hypermarkets, Carrefour was the fourth largest retailer in Malaysia with net sales of 400 million euros in the year to June. A major retailer in Japan, Aeon already has 29 stores in Malaysia. Carrefour, the world's second-biggest retailer by sales after Walmart, has been seeking to rejuvenate its performance which has been held back by the slowdown in its core European markets. The shakeup and refocus of its operations helped generate a 2.1 per cent-increase in third-quarter sales. Earlier this month Carrefour sold off its operations in Colombia for an enterprise value of 2 billion euros.