Dutch retailer Ahold on Monday sold a Brazilian supermarket chain to the world's biggest company, Wal-Mart Stores, as it cuts debts and focuses on core markets in Europe and the United States.
Ahold said it was selling the Bompreco retail chain to the US retail giant and the Hipercard credit card organisation to local bank Unibanco. The assets together are worth about $500 million.
The amount was in line with analysts' expectations and puts the world's third-largest retailer on track to meet an asset disposal goal of 2.5 billion euros by 2005. Two US retail chains and activities in Spain and Argentina are still on the block.
Ahold's other Brazilian stores chain, G. Barbosa, is not included in the deal.
An Ahold spokesman said the Dutch retailer, which pulled back from the brink last year after a billion-euro profit overstatement scandal, was getting roughly the enterprise value as gross proceeds.
Wal-Mart said in a separate statement it had acquired Bompreco assets worth $300 million. It did not say how much cash it was paying or how much debt it was taking over.
"This is good news and the amount is in line with expectations," said analyst Fernand de Boer at ING Markets.
Ahold shares rose 3.9 percent to 6.95 euros at 1321 GMT, for a gain so far this year of 10 percent after a 42 percent loss over 2003.
Bompreco has 118 hyper-markets and supermarkets with a leading position in north-eastern Brazil. Hipercard is the biggest credit card in north-eastern Brazil, with over two million cardholders.
"This acquisition demonstrates our long-term commitment to the Brazilian market and specifically to the North-eastern part of the country," said Vincent Trius, President of Wal-Mart Brazil.
The Brazilian merger authorities had blocked a sale of Bompreco and Barbosa to the same buyer. France's Carrefour and Brazil's CBD, known for its Pao de Acucar retail chain, had also been interested in Bompreco.