CANADA VOWS SUPPORT FOR FIRMS AFTER BOTCHED CARREFOUR TAKEOVER

Canada’s Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne spoke to Alimentation Couche-Tard founder Alain Bouchard and assured him of support for Canadian businesses, after the company dropped plans to buy European retailer Carrefour SA, the minister said in a tweet.

Quebec-based convenience store operator Couche-Tard abandoned talks to buy Carrefour for $20 billion after French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire raised concerns about food and job security. Instead, the two companies decided to work on partnership opportunities, they said in a joint statement on Saturday, Denny Thomas reported for Reuters.

Champagne said in his tweet that the government will support Canadian businesses “here and abroad,” adding the two-way trade benefits businesses both sides of the Atlantic.

Bouchard, a self-made billionaire, has taken Couche-Tard from just one store in 1980 to a global network of convenience stores and gas stations with a market value of $33 billion, with 66 acquisitions along the way.

France’s swift and firm rejection of the deal sparked a flurry of trans-Atlantic lobbying to salvage the transaction, but the companies ended their pursuit late on Friday.

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