Europe’s largest retailer Carrefour was already struggling to pressure its Chinese partners to close a deal, first announced more than a year ago, for its faltering Chinese business. But now German rival Metro’s concurrent Chinese auction is piling on the pressure.
The French retailer signed a terms sheet in January 2018 outlining plans for Shenzhen-headquartered social media giant Tencent and Fuzhou-based supermarket chain Yonghui Superstores to invest in its China business.
Crucially, however, it did not nail a price or the size of the stake before making the announcement.
In hindsight, this looks like a potentially major blunder because since signing the preliminary...