Paris/Moscow, Oct 15 - French retailer Carrefour is pulling out of crisis-hit Russia only four months after gaining a foothold in what was once one of Europe's fastest growing retail markets.
Carrefour said on Thursday it saw little growth and acquisition prospects in Russia - where it previously aimed to be the third biggest player in the long term - and its departure would lead to a small cash outlay.
"It is precisely because we are adopting a long-term stance that we are exiting from Russia," Carrefour Chief Financial Officer Pierre Bouchut said in a conference call.
The retailer, which guided at the lower end of its own current year operating profit forecast, added it was not planning to exit any other emerging market for now.
It declined to to give more financial details about its exit from Russia.
Last week, Carrefour denied a report in Le Monde which said it was caving in to pressure from shareholders to make disposals and pull out of emerging markets such as Latin America.
Carrefour said the trading environment in Europe was "persistently challenging" as it posted revenues of 24 billion euros in the three months to Sept. 30, down 2.9 percent.
The performance came just short of a Reuters poll of 11 analysts who forecast a 1.7 percent drop to 24.3 billion euros.
"The group's room for manoeuvre is getting smaller and smaller," said Nicolas Champ, analyst at Oddo Securities.
Carrefour, one of the most high-profile retailers to recently enter Russia, planned to open a mini-hypermarket in Lipetsk, about 500 km (313 miles) south of Moscow, in December.
It said it would sell the stores it opened in Moscow in June and in Krasnodar in September.
Carrefour's earlier ambitions to enter the Russian market by acquiring grocery chain Seventh Continent were repeatedly thwarted and talks were suspended this year, sources told Reuters at the time.
Jacobo Caller, Carrefour's director in Russia, told Reuters last month the company was keen to make purchases in Russia but decisions were "complicated" as the economic crisis made valuation difficult to make.
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Carrefour was a relative late-comer to the Russian market compared with German retailer Metro which opened a store there in 2001, followed by French rival Auchan in 2002.
American rival Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, is not yet present but press reports speculate it could acquire Russian retailer Lenta.
Back at home, Carrefour continued to be hit by falling food prices and thrifty consumers cutting back on discretionary non-food purchases.
Carrefour's third-quarter sales in France, a market which accounts for more than 40 percent of its revenues, fell 4.2 percent on a like-for-like basis while hypermarkets revenues fell 8 percent.
Bouchut said that although promotional activities had slowed during the summer, the retailer would step up promotions in the fourth quarter.
The retailer repeated it would spend 600 million euros in price reductions, the bulk in France, Spain, Italy and Belgium.
Carrefour shares, which gained 13 percent since Jan.1, closed down 0.1 percent, at 31.19 euros
Carrefour's smaller rival Casino Guichard this week reported third-quarter sales down 1 percent year-on-year, broadly in line with analysts' expectations.