French group Carrefour gets EUR 41 mln dividends from Romanian operations

French group Carrefour received dividends of EUR 41.7 million from the profit its stores in Romania made between 2011 and 2015, according to a decision of the shareholders, reports local Profit.ro. Carrefour Romania had a cumulative net profit of EUR 141 million in that period. At the end of December 2015, Carrefour announced that it bought the Billa stores in Romania for almost EUR 100 million. This was the third largest deal in the Romanian retail after the Auchan-Real deal, worth over EUR 250 million, and the Lidl-Plus Discount transactions, of over EUR 200 million . The Competition Council in Romania approved the Billa takeover in late June this year. However, the French retailer needs to give up two Carrefour Market stores and one Billa supermarket in Braila, eastern Romania, where it would have reached a dominant position following the transaction. Carrefour posted a turnover of over EUR 1.21 billion in Romania last year, up by 13% compared to 2014. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com