2023-04-24 05:49:33
Nothing is going well at Casino, but the games are far from over. Since 2015, Jean-Charles Naouri, the builder and main owner of the distribution group (Monoprix, Franprix, Cdiscount, Naturalia…), has been trying to bail out to save his empire which is drowning in an ocean of debt. The rise in interest rates and inflation, which penalizes a very low-margin business, have rendered this strategy obsolete. For the business community, it is obvious: Mr. Naouri will have to strike hard.
To improve its financial situation, the group needs both to reduce its debt and to strengthen its capital. The press releases released Monday, April 24 show that he is on the way. Casino has thus announced that it “studying the possibility” to request the opening of a conciliation procedure, which prefigures a restructuring for certain types of subordinated or hybrid debt.
At the same time, proposals for buyers are flooding in, not always solicited elsewhere. Casino thus revealed that it had received an offer from the Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky (indirect shareholder of the Monde), supported by Fimalac, the holding company of Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, proposing to bail out the group through a capital increase of 1.1 billion euros.
The first would bring 750 million euros and the second 150 million, the balance being subscribed by the existing shareholders. While the capitalization of the distributor reached 700 million euros on Monday before the opening of the Stock Exchange, such an injection would give control of Casino to EP Global commerce, the company controlled by Mr. Kretinsky.
Strategic partnerships
Mr. Kretinsky, who owns 25% of Fnac Darty, already owns 10% of Casino. He is also a 40% shareholder in the German Metro. As for Mr. Ladreit Lacharrière, in 2020 he had provided financing of 215 million euros to the holding companies allowing Mr. Naouri to retain control of the distribution group.
At first glance, this proposal does not appear to be compatible with the merger under study between, on the one hand, the French Casino brands and, on the other, Teract, the listed company controlled by the cereal cooperative InVivo. In any case, the founders of Teract do not hide from the Monde that, for them, it is a “competing project”.
On March 9, exclusive negotiations had been signed to marry Casino, Monoprix and Franprix with Jardiland and other Gamm Vert in order to create “the French leader in responsible and sustainable distribution”. However, this union, proposed by Moez-Alexandre Zouari, the main franchisee of Monoprix and Franprix, associated with the founder of Free, Xavier Niel, and the investment banker Matthieu Pigasse (both individual shareholders of the Monde), is now dubbed by a strong ally: Intermarché.
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