European Stocks spread losses as Carrefour abandons Merger Talks

Jan 18 (Reuters) – European stocks tumbled on Monday after French retailer Carrefour crashed after ending talks that brought it closer to a 16.2 billion euro ($ 19.57 billion) merger with the Alimentation Couche group. -Tard. To this was added the concern about a slow economic recovery in view of the persistence of the coronavirus.

The pan-European STOXX 600 Index was down 0.2% at 0810 GMT, extending Friday’s losses, as the benchmark ended a four-week bullish streak.

The larger-than-expected quarterly rebound for the Chinese economy failed to enthuse some investors who feared that rising COVID-19 cases and tighter measures in the country could detract from first-quarter growth.

Carrefour fell 5.9% in early trading in the morning after its merger talks with Canada’s Food Couche-Tard fell through and the two sides decided to work on partnership opportunities.

The retail group’s listing had lost nearly a third of its earnings after the French government opposed the deal last week.

On the other hand, the stock of the carmaker Stellantis rose almost 3% on its first day of trading on the Paris stock exchange when the merger between Fiat Chrysler and PSA was completed.

(Information from Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; edited by Arun Koyyur; translated by Andrea Ariet in Gdansk)