Casino may follow other French supermarket chains--Carrefour and Auchan--in a foray into Italy's supermarket sector.

Italy's main business daily newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reports that Casino is in talks with Italian Coop, the largest chain, for Coop's 200 discount outlets as a possible prelude to entering the full supermarket business. The companies are declining to comment.

Over 41% of the supermarket sector is controlled by foreign firms, with the French leading the way with Auchan, cooperating with Rinascente and Carrefour with Gs.

Rinascente reports that its sales in the first six months of the year increases by 4.7% and touched 2 673m [European Dollar] and net profits grew to 2.8m [European Dollar] from 1m [European Dollar] at the of the of the first half of 2000.

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