CNN.com - Ahold offloads Brazilian chain
Isabella Ramos
Published Apr 12, 2026
Ahold is selling out of some markets to focus on Europe and the U.S. Story Tools
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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- Dutch retailer Ahold has sold a Brazilian supermarket chain to Wal-Mart Stores, shedding debt and honing its focus on Europe and the United States as it tries to recover from an accounting scandal.
Ahold said Monday it was selling the Bompreco chain to the U.S. retail giant and the HiperCard credit card business to local bank Unibanco. The assets together are worth about $500 million.
The sale value was in line with market expectations and puts the world's No. 3 retailer on track to meet an asset disposal goal of 2.5 billion euros by 2005. Two U.S. retail chains and assets in Spain and Argentina are still for sale.
An Ahold spokesman said the Dutch retailer, which embarked on a drive to withdraw from several markets last year after a billion-euro profit overstatement scandal, was getting roughly the enterprise value as gross proceeds.
Ahold's other Brazilian retailer, the smaller G. Barbosa chain, was not included in the deal. The sale of both of Ahold's Brazilian retailers to the same buyer was blocked by a Brazilian court injunction on antitrust grounds.
The Ahold spokesman said the sale of the 32-store Barbosa chain was still on the cards for the first half of this year.
Wal-Mart said in a separate statement it had acquired Bompreco assets worth $300 million, but did not specify how much was cash or debt. Unibanco, Brazil's third-biggest private bank, said it had paid $217 million for HiperCard.
The deal marks Wal-Mart's first international acquisition in more than a year and quadruples its Brazilian store base. Wal-Mart is now the third-largest Brazilian retailer, behind leader CBD and No. 2 Carrefour.
Although the $300 million price tag is tiny by Wal-Mart's standards -- it averages some $700 million in sales daily, and more than $1 billion on a busy day -- analysts said it could open the door to further expansion in Latin America.
"With the exception of Mexico, Wal-Mart has been very timid with its expansion in Latin America," said Rodolfo Spielmann, a Bain & Co. manager based in Sao Paulo.
Spielmann said Wal-Mart's "always low prices" mantra would work well in Brazil, which has a relatively low per-capita income. "Whatever you do on the bottom of the pyramid tends to have good chances of success, so it is a good fit with what Wal-Mart does best," he said.
Ahold analysts were also pleased with the transaction, and Ahold shares on Monday closed 5.1 percent higher at 7.03 euros.
"This is good news, and the amount is in line with expectations," said analyst Fernand de Boer at ING Markets.
Bompreco has 118 hypermarkets and supermarkets, with a leading position in Northeastern Brazil. HiperCard is the biggest credit card in Northeastern Brazil, with more than 2 million cardholders.
Ahold entered the Brazilian market in 1996. In October 2001, Bompreco became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ahold.
Unaudited 2003 net sales for Bompreco were about 843 million euros ($1.05 billion). Bompreco and HiperCard employ more than 20,000 people.
Ahold has sold assets in Chile, Peru and Paraguay and is still in negotiations to sell the Disco supermarket chain in Argentina.
Ahold said last month it planned to sell the Bi-Lo and Bruno's retail chains in the southeastern United States in 2004.
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