Being the world’s second retailer behind Wal-Mart has apparently not rendered Carrefour immune from the global real estate crisis. The french retailer announced Tuesday that it has sold 97 of its supermarket properties to an asset manager. The total amount for all sales is 365 million euros or $476.91 million.

La Française AM the buyer, had around 5.8 billion euros in real-estate investments in 2010 and managed 36 billion euros in assets. Carrefour will maintain operation of the supermarkets on a 12-year renewable lease and plans to reinvest the money from the sale into property development. The sale comes after the company’s shares had fallen over 44 percent this year and investors expressed their declining confidence. The retailer has received five profit warnings in 12 months.

Carrefour, an international hypermarket chain with headquarters in Levallois-Perret, France, is the second largest retail group in revenue and the third largest in profit behind Wal-mart (U.S.) and Tesco (U.K.). In 2010, its revenue topped 101 billion euros. It has stores in Europe, South America, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, China, and many other locations around the world.

La Française AM is an asset management firm based in Europe with offices in Pais, Spain, Italy, and Luxembourg. It has a strong focus on institutional clients and has helped companies manage investments since 1975.