French supermarket retailer Carrefour will purchase Grupo BIG, a Brazilian food retailer, valued at about $1.3 billion.

This is the first big acquisition from Carrefour, which says it is confident it can accelerate its turnaround. Carrefour has presence already in Brazil, with its subsidiary Carrefour Brasil as one of the country’s biggest retailers.

Grupo BIG has 387 stores.

The acquisition will be 70 per cent in cash and 30 per cent in new Carrefour Brazil shares.