CarrefourSA

CarrefourSA is a supermarket chain based in Turkey, founded in 1991 as a partnership between Sabancı Holding and Carrefour.

History
Its first supermarket was opened in the İçerenköy district of Istanbul on 22 November 1993, simply under the name Carrefour. This market was also the first supermarket opened in Turkey. In 1996, the name CarrefourSA began to be used.

CarrefourSA entered the ISE by purchasing Gima, a public company, in 2005. After the merger with Gima, Gima shares were closed, and CarrefourSA shares began to be traded in 2 shares as of August 24, 2006. In July 2015, these shares were combined and started to be traded under a single share code.

On July 25, 2013, Sabancı Holding purchased 12% more shares from Carrefour Nederland BV for 141 million liras, increasing its share to 50.8% and taking over the management.

Mergers
CarrefourSA has merged with many grocery chains operating in Turkey through acquisitions since 1999. Following the merger of French Promodès with Carrefour in 1999, 3 of Promodès' hypermarkets operating under the name Continent in Turkey joined CarrefourSA.

Champion supermarket chain, another brand of Carrefour in France, was opened in Fulya in November 2000 under the name ChampionSA as its Turkish version. However, in 2007, as the name CarrefourSA was more preferred by customers, all ChampionSAs were converted into CarrefourSA Express markets.

In 2005, Fiba Holding, which owns Gima and Endi, was negotiating for the sale of these two markets to Koç Holding. However, it was sold to CarrefourSA within three days after CarrefourSA offered 132.5 million dollars. Thus, on July 13, 2005, 65.33% of Gima and 34.95% of Endi were purchased and a total of 81 stores were taken over. Koç Holding reacted to this sudden sale.

CarrefourSA purchased Alpark, a local grocery chain affiliated with Saya Group, for 45 million liras in July 2010.

In February 2015, 26 markets of Ismar, a local grocery chain, were purchased. In March, 29 branches of a chain called 1e1 were purchased for 31 million liras. In May, Kiler, another local grocery chain with 201 markets, was purchased for 429 million Liras. Thus, CarrefourSA had 256 new markets in 2015.