Carrefour to buy shopping malls in $2.8-billion deal

Carrefour is teaming up with investors to buy 127 shopping malls in which it runs stores, in a $2.8 billion-deal that marks the French retailer's latest attempt to revive its struggling European hypermarkets.

The world's second-biggest retailer behind US group Walmart has been battling for years to turn around its core hypermarket business as time-pressed customers increasingly shop locally and online, and buy non-food goods from specialists.