Carrefour (CAFP; NR/BBB) FV
€Bmrk 8.1Y SLB IPT +170a vs. FV +130 (-40)
See earnings hereand fundamentals vs. peers below. Again to reiterate despite the French flag and headquarters this is a international co; last year 44% of profit came from France, 34% from Latin America and 27% from Europe ex. France. For those worried about France grocer sentiment - it actually did very well in the 1H; pricing -10% only drove headline sales -2%, while EBIT margin actually rose 13bps to 1.6%. Former has allowed it to make impressive market share gains in the country; from 19.3% to 20.7% (Kantar). It has taken on 23 (generally seen as loss-making) Casino stores (as have peers ITM and Auchan) - not the largest addition of recent though.
On RV: Carrefour used to trade tight to Tesco which is why we never took the curve seriously. It is flat to it now. Still, Tesco is having a stellar year, enjoys #1 market share in the UK, runs significantly higher margin and BS governance from it is strong. Single region exposure and smaller scale are its only downfall vs. CAFP (though as Auchan has shown scale for grocer has questionable if any credit implications). Net we don't have a firm view on CAFP vs. Tesco curves needing to trade significantly apart - though we see the beta this year coming from CAFP performance (particularly on any weakening) not Tesco.
The WOWAU28s on very low cash px continue to screen value.