Galeries Lafayette owner raises Carrefour stake to 9.5 pct

The Moulin family that owns French department store Galeries Lafayette has raised its stake in supermarket chain Carrefour to 9.5 percent, business daily Les Echos reported on Sunday.

The Moulin family announced last April that it had acquired 6.1 percent of Carrefour, a transaction worth about 1.28 billion euros that made it the second-biggest shareholder in the supermarket chain after a consortium of Groupe Arnault and private equity group Colony Capital.

Philippe Houze, chairman of Galeries Lafayette's management board, said in an interview to be published in Les Echos' Monday edition that the family holding did not plan to increase its stake further but would request two board seats at Carrefour's next shareholder assembly.

"We have invested progressively in the capital of Carrefour, in which we now own 9.5 percent and are the second-largest shareholder," he said.

"We have a lot faith in Carrefour's potential to recover and in the strategy implemented by Georges Plassat, for whom I have great esteem," he said, referring to Carrefour's CEO who has revamped the company's core European activities.

A Carrefour spokeswoman said she could not immediately comment.