Carrefour and bank pull out of Greece Ahead of Sunday's crucial elections in Greece, two French companies have cut their exposure to the economically-enfeebled country. Carrefour's new chief executive has sold the French retailer's stores in Greece for €1 to its local joint venture partner, while Crédit Agricole is transferring assets to France from its Greek subsidiary Emporiki bank, it was revealed on Friday. Carrefour said it would book a loss of €220m on the sale of its lossmaking Greek operations to the Marinopoulos group, its joint venture partner, which will become Carrefour's franchisee in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and other Balkan countries. The sale, after six weeks of talks, is the first by Georges Plassat since he replaced Lars Olofsson as Carrefour chairman and chief executive last month. Mr Plassat is expected to outline elements of his strategy to turn around the troubled French retailer at its annual meeting on Monday. Meanwhile, Crédit Agricole is to transfer ownership of Emporiki's operations in Romania, Bulgaria and Albania to the Paris-listed and mutually-controlled bank in France, a move designed to allay concerns of depositors in those countries. The transfer is another sign of Crédit Agricole's waning commitment to the debt-ridden country whose future in the eurozone is in question. Crédit Agricole is the European bank most exposed to Greece and is ready to launch a plan to stem losses in Emporiki if the situation in the austerity-hit country takes a turn for the worse. The plan involves a number of scenarios, including hiving off Emporiki to domestic Greek banks or shutting its doors. Analysts extimate that the bank could lose between €5bn-€7bn in addition to the €6bn of losses it has already made due to Emporiki, Greece's fifth-largest bank by assets. Last week, the French bank made a breakthrough by securing an agreement from the Greek central bank, after months of wrangling, to allow Emporiki access to a liquidity programme for local banks. This had previously been denied to it because the Greek central bank argued that Emporiki was French. Greece's deteriorating economic situation prompted Carrefour to transfer management and sell its assets to the Marinopoulos group because the latter was "best placed to ensure its management in the current context," Carrefour said. Leonidas Marinopoulos, president of the family-owned group, said it remained "firmly committed to Greece." Greece, which Carrefour entered 21 years ago, is its second-largest market in Europe in terms of number of stores. But it has also become the group's only loss-making country, Mr Olofsson said at the company's 2011 results in March. Sales in Greece fell further this year - by 16 per cent in the first three months. Of the 463 shops being transferred to Marinopoulos, 41 are hypermarkets and 252 are supermarkets, with the remainder a mix of other formats. They will retain the Carrefour banner. Lazard advised Carrefour and Bucéphale Finance was adviser to the Marinopoulos group.