TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne spoke with Food Couche-Tard founder Alain Bouchard and assured him of support for Canadian companies after the company withdrew his plans to buy European retailer Carrefour SA, the minister said in a tweet on Sunday.
Quebec-based convenience store operator Couche-Tard dropped talks to buy Carrefour for $ 20 billion after French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire worried about food and security labor. Instead, the two companies decided to work on collaboration opportunities, they said Saturday in a joint statement.
Champagne said in his tweet that the government will support Canadian businesses “here and abroad,” adding two-way trade that benefits businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.
Bouchard, a self-made billionaire, took Couche-Tard from a 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 barrage of transatlantic lobbying to save the transaction, but companies ended their chase late Friday. Le Maire reiterated his opposition without hearing the terms of the deal, sources told Reuters on Friday and said the deal should not be revised before France’s 2022 presidential election.
Report by Denny Thomas; Edited by Lisa Shumaker