French retailer Carrefour Chairman Daniel Bernard gestures during a news conference February 24. Carrefour merging with former rival Promodes to form the world's third largest retail group announced solid profits and a bonus share issue on Thursday, boosting its share price in early trade. Daniel Bernard said that Carrefour would create a subsidiary and fund aimed at launching an open Internet portal to which partners and competitors would be able to access.

PW/WS