France’s Auchan recently approached competitor Carrefour for a takeover and was willing to pay down about $ 19 billion, but talks to create France’s market leader have stalled on terms.

Auchan would have approached Carrefour, giving Auchan a majority stake in the merged company, the sources say.

However, discussions were halted after disagreement between the shareholders of both companies over the valuation and structure of the deal, according to the sources. Auchan proposed a deal that Carrefour would have valued at about 21 Euros per share, or about 16.6 billion euros. However, Carrefour’s management and main shareholders considered the range of EUR 20 to EUR 21.25 to be too low, while the complex structure of both equity and cash remuneration also proved to be a stumbling block.

It is unclear whether the talks will resume, wrote Bloomberg.

The Carrefour share closed on Friday at 16.03 euros.