The logo of a Casino supermarket, July 5, 2023 in Ploubalay in Côtes-d’Armor (AFP / Damien MEYER)
A dark year in the long history of Casino: the distributor which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2023 published catastrophic financial results for this financial year on Wednesday, with a spectacular net loss of 5.7 billion euros.
Turnover falls to less than 9 billion euros despite a context of inflation which is boosting sales.
In 2022, its net loss was 316 million euros.
The group emphasizes the resilient sales of the two flagship brands, Monoprix and Franprix, respectively down 1.3% and up 3%. But these variations are a far cry from French competitors like Intermarché, which claims an 8.8% increase in its sales, Système U or E.Leclerc.
Casino has also reduced the value of most of its assets in its accounts, including Monoprix and Franprix.
This is one of the elements explaining its impressive loss, the other being the decline in the profitability of its activity across all formats, as well as the great difficulties of its hypermarkets and supermarkets in France.
Most of them have since been sold to competitors Intermarché, Auchan and Carrefour. Les Mousquetaires/Intermarché bought 61 in 2023, and 288 others are due to change hands in 2024. Around thirty of them will become Carrefour, around a hundred Auchan and the rest Intermarché.
– Change of control –
In total, Casino indicates that it has sold 1.4 billion euros of assets in 2023, including the share still held in the Brazilian brand Assai, and 1.7 billion since the start of 2024, including these 288 stores.
The group has not communicated the number of employees employed at the end of 2023. At the end of 2022, it had 200,000 worldwide including 50,000 in France but has separated from all of its international activities in recent months.
Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinksy poses during a photo shoot on January 22, 2020 in Paris (AFP / JOEL SAGET)
The commercial court on Monday validated the distributor’s accelerated safeguard plan, fiercely negotiated for months and permitted by candidates for its takeover, the billionaires Daniel Kretinsky and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière as well as the Attestor investment fund.
Together, they must bring more than 900 million euros out of the 1.2 billion expected by the distributor in the coming weeks. These capital increases will massively dilute Casino’s current shareholders, starting with the first of them, Jean-Charles Naouri, CEO since 2005.
This, on the condition that administrators and legal representatives, CSE of Distribution Casino France, staff representatives or public prosecutors do not contest the court decision.
The central CGT union delegate of the Jean Pastor group indicated on Monday that he “reserves the right to appeal the court’s decision within 10 days”.
– Give back “breath” –
Failing this, Casino said on Monday, the restructuring of the group’s debt is expected on March 27. The buyers will take control of the group immediately.
Philippe Palazzi, July 27, 2023 in Paris (AFP / JOEL SAGET)
“From April, the management team, with its general manager Philippe Palazzi”, a former member of Metro and the agroindustrial Lactalis, “will implement an ambitious plan of reorganization, investment and modernization ” of what will remain of the group, indicated the buyers on Monday.
Daniel Kretinsky was then satisfied to soon turn the page on “weeks so uncertain, where the threat was to disappear”, to “restore means and at the same time breath” to a group “resized, reorganized and freed from debt”.
However, he warned that “the road will still be long, with difficult moments and will require a lot of effort from everyone.”
Casino has left it to the new team to draw up the financial outlook for the future. “Given the upcoming change of control, the group is not publishing a new 2024 outlook,” he said on Wednesday.
Furthermore, the e-retailer of the CDiscount group, expected to remain within the fold of the activities taken over by Daniel Kretinsky, also announced lackluster results with sales down 27% to 1.2 billion euros in turnover. net business for a net loss of 125.6 million euros over the past year.
However, its current operating profitability is increasing, in accordance with its objectives regarding the transition of its model.