José Luis Duran, chief executive of French supermarket group Carrefour, has said that the end of the Halley family’s reign as the company’s largest shareholder will not have any impact on strategy.

Speaking at a shareholder meeting, Duran confirmed that the Halley family’s decision to dissolve a shareholder pact that had given his family 20 per cent of the voting rights for a 10 per cent stake, would not lead to any significant changes at Carrefour. The move was announced last month and took effect yesterday.

At the same meeting, chairman Robert Halley made no comment on the decision. The family’s shares are now distributed among about a dozen family members, some of whom are expected to sell their interests in Carrefour.

In addition, the family has ceded two seats on the Carrefour supervisory board. Bernard Arnaud, the chairman of Carrefour’s biggest shareholder luxury group LVMH, last week called for one of the board’s empty seats to be added to the two his group holds already.

Topics