The Carrefour Group, which already owned 27.5% of the shares of the GB company - a subsidiary of GIB in Belgium - has just acquired the remaining 72.5% of shares, for the sum of € 670 million.

A first payment of € 201 million will take place when the competition authorities approve the transaction, and the remainder, i.e. € 469 million, will be paid in July 2001.

GB is the leading food retailer in Belgium, and should achieve consolidated sales of around €3.7 billion excluding sales tax in 2000. Total sales under banners of the Group are expected to surpass €4.0 billion.

In Belgium, GB operates:
- 60 Maxi GB and Bigg's Continent hypermarkets,
- 73 integrated Super GB supermarkets and 350 franchised supermarkets, (Super GB Partner, Contact GB, Unic and Nopri)
- 7 GB Express convenience stores.

GB also operates 27 Globi supermarkets in Poland.
This agreement allows Carrefour to significantly reinforce its position on the European market. The Group will take all measures to rapidly transfer its retailing expertise to GB and develop all synergies on an international level.
Thus starting in 2001, most hypermarkets should take on the Carrefour name, as is the case in all countries where the Group is present.

Carrefour is already the largest retailer in France, Spain, and Greece, and number two in Italy. Thanks to this transaction, the Group is now also leader in Belgium based on its two leading formats - the hypermarket and the supermarket.