Carrefour said it has signed an agreement with Slovak companies ICS and ECM Group MV to sell its four hypermarkets in the country. ICS and ECM purchased a 100% stake in the French-based retailer's Slovak unit, Carrefour Slovensko, for an undisclosed sum.

Carrefour said the stores will now be operated under franchise, adding that the transaction is subject to approval by the relevant authorities. In 2006, the four had sales of €102 million and almost broke even at an operational level.

The Slovak competition office last year raised objections to an original deal under which British-based supermarket giant Tesco would have acquired Carrefour's Slovak outlets as part of a wider deal. Tesco and Carrefour went ahead with a supermarket swap covering the Czech and Taiwanese markets, but excluded Slovakia from the deal.

Carrefour has come under pressure from new shareholders, French billionaire Bernard Arnault and US fund Colony Capital, to dispose of some of its huge property assets; but a spokeswoman for Carrefour noted that the company had already announced its intention to sell the Slovak units some time ago before Blue Capital, Arnault and Colony's investment vehicle, bought a stake in the firm.