Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard has broken off €16.2bn takeover talks with Carrefour after opposition from the French government over the deal’s potential impact on the country’s food security and jobs could not be overcome.
Couche-Tard co-founder and chairman, Alain Bouchard, met with French finance minister Bruno Le Maire on Friday to try to win him over with mixture of assurances and pledges, including to invest €3bn over five years, no job cuts for two years, and dual stock listings.
It did not work, nor did the intervention hours later by Quebec economy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, who reminded Mr Le Maire in a call that French rail company Alstom had bought Canada’s Bombardier last year without Canada playing the protectionist card.
The companies said in a joint statement on Saturday that there had been “preliminary discussions around a transaction, mindful of all stakeholders” but that “in light of recent events, these are no longer…