Not that Renault suffering in Russia. The French retailer Carrefour, the world, announced Thursday its intention to sell its activities in Russia "in the absence of sufficient growth prospects." Carrefour is present in Russia since 2008 and operates two supermarkets in Moscow and Krasnodar, the statement said.

Carrefour had last week denied press reports that he was considering "the sale of its business in growth markets," noting that Brazil and China in particular remained a priority.The daily Le Monde had said that "the sale of implantations in Latin America" was "seriously considered a track" and the "bulk sale of emerging countries," the newspaper had mentioned initially, was "dismissed".

This will leave the Russian market comes as Carrefour announced disappointing sales in the third quarter. Lars Olofsson had not hidden earlier this week that the situation was difficult in a Interveiw The Wall Street Journal.

Indeed, the turnover of the group is down, but the group was "on track to achieve the 2009 targets."Operating profit before non-recurring items would still be in the lower range of 2.7 to 2.8 billion euros announced June 30

In the third quarter, the group recorded a turnover of 24.018 billion euros, down 3.8% in comparable stores, slightly less than expected by analysts (24.29 billion euros average).

Gain market share

In a statement, Lars Olofsson, the CEO of Carrefour, said that "in an environment that remains challenging, particularly in our markets of Western Europe, (the group) continues to gain market share in France, reflecting the success of Carrefour Market, which compensates for the disappointing performance of hypermarkets in the third quarter.

Carrefour reiterated its priorities for 2009 to invest 600 million euros to support sales and market share and reach at least 500 million of savings in operational costs.

In France, sales between June and September were down 4.2% in comparable stores to 10.400 billion euros (10.398 million consensus) with 5.292 billion euros in hypermarkets a decrease of 8% in comparable stores. Supermarket sales rose 1% to 2.292 million. In the hard discount they show a decrease of 7% on a comparable basis to 641 million.

Moreover, the group plans to change the pattern of its hypermarkets. According to the site of Les Echos, William Vicar will replace Alain Souillard, less than two years after his appointment as head of the 200 stores of the French number two worldwide distribution.

Internationally, Carrefour has achieved in Western Europe a turnover of 6.346 billion (-6.5%) while they increased in Latin America by 5% in the third quarter same-store sales at 3.368 billion. In Brazil, they rose by 14.2% at constant exchange rates, of which 3.9% in comparable stores. In Asia the turnover has however declined by 6.4% to 1.787 million in the third quarter.