LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - French supermarket group Carrefour has denied making an approach to Casino after its rival said it had been contacted about a possible combination.
Casino said in a statement on Monday that it had been contacted by Carrefour over the last few days but that it had rejected the approach.

Following a meeting of its board of directors on Sunday, the board unanimously reiterated its "entire confidence" in Casino's strategy for value creation based on its "unique" market positioning.

"Casino thus intends to take all necessary action to defend the group's corporate interest, and its structural integrity, a key factor for the success of its strategy.

"The board of directors also acknowledged the barriers, in France and in Brazil, to a combination with Carrefour, especially in terms of competition and employment. The board unanimously decided to reject Carrefour's approach."

Casino added that Carrefour's approach comes at a time when the market for its securities has been subjected to "coordinated downward speculative manipulations of an unprecedented scale".

But Carrefour said in a later press release that it was "surprised that Casino's board of directors would have been submitted a merger proposal that does not exist".

Kepler Cheuvreux said: "Given the short interest on Casino (which remains very high) and the volatility of the share price, we believe it was in the interest of Casino to issue a press release.

"Although we doubt there were some legal needs to do so, it is a way for Casino to show to the financial market that Casino's assets are attractive and undervalued."

At 0900 BST, Carrefour shares were up 0.5% to €16.67 and Casino shares were down 0.8% to €35.77.

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