Act Botezatu Estrade Partners has advised Louis Delhaize on the sale of its Romanian Cora operations – including ten Cora hypermarkets and eight Cora Urban stores – to the Carrefour Group. Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii advised Carrefour.
The transaction remains contingent on regulatory approval.
Louis Delhaize, a Franco-Belgian Group, is the owner of the Cora retailer in Romania. According to Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii, “once the transaction is cleared by the relevant authorities, Carrefour will take over ten Cora hypermarkets and eight Cora Urban stores, and nearly 2,400 employees in what is considered to be Romania’s most significant transaction in the retail sector in recent years.”
According to Act Botezatu Estrade Partners, “Cora’s exit from the Romanian market comes after the sale-and-leaseback of seven Cora commercial centers located in Romania at the end of 2021 and early 2022, transactions by which Cora sold its real estate properties and continued its operations as a tenant.”
The Act Botezatu Estrade Partners team included Partners Laura Estrade, Mihaela Posirca, and Stefan Botezatu, Counsels Andrei Muresan and Iustina Sima, Managing Associate Ruxandra Listea, Senior Associate Andrei Petre, and Associate Lorena Samoila.
The Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii team included Partners Razvan Gheorghiu-Testa, Horia Ispas, and Raluca Vasilache and Managing Associates Veronica Aman and Dana Barbu.