Casino shareholders are welcomed at the Maison de la Chimie with a breakfast buffet and a 35-euro voucher for CDiscount, the distributor’s non-food e-commerce site. We had not requested any proxies, not being sure of being able to participate in this general meeting, but we still have 25 proxies, for 3,664 shares.
The CEO, Jean-Charles Naouri, explains in the introduction that the refocusing has been completed in France on premium formats, proximity and e-commerce. He says he is confident that the disposal plan will be completed by the end of 2023. The process launched in June 2018 was slowed down by the pandemic. It concerns France. It remains to achieve 1.2 billion euros out of a total of 4.5 billion. The manager details the operations that took place in Brazil. GPA separated from Assai, a specialist in cash & carry, the Brazilian version of discount, and sold it 70 hypermarkets which will be transformed into cash & carry. GPA is thus refocused on buoyant formats.
Subscriptions
The CEO returns to France. The 210,000 customer subscribers of hypermarkets, supermarkets and Monoprix have a reduction of 10% for a small monthly payment. Home delivery is also a strong focus and has relied on partners such as Ocado (automated warehouse) and Amazon since 2020. Jean-Charles Naouri also highlights food and non-food purchases pooled with Intermarché. The group monetizes its data with its company RelevanC.
The floor is given to Tina Schuler who manages the Géant hypermarkets, Casino supermarkets and convenience formats in France. It is a question of pre-empting purchasing power and shopping without racing… The microphone is now up to Guillaume Seneclauze, president of Monoprix and Naturalia. He intends to double e-commerce within three years.
Intervention then by Cécile Guillou, CEO of Franprix. The objective is expansion by opening 200 stores. The brand, historically present in Paris and in the inner suburbs, opens in Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Montpellier… Emmanuel Grenier speaks on CDiscount, a powerful marketplace.
Otmane Hajji then describes his company GreenYellow, which produces local green energy. This company founded 15 years ago employs 600 people in 16 countries. GreenYellow holds photovoltaic assets for the long term.
Video messages from the leaders of Assai, GPA and Exito are broadcast.
It is now the financial director, David Lubek, who is rolling out the 2021 accounts by comparing them to 2019, before the pandemic.
The CSR director, Matthieu Riche, details the group’s actions in this area, organic products, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, benevolent management to reinforce motivation… It is the turn of Thierry Billot, independent lead director, at the subject of governance, the operation of the Board of Directors and its specialized committees. He details Jean-Charles Naouri’s compensation for 2021. He explains that it is proposed to raise his fixed compensation from 480,000 to 825,000 euros from 2022.
We are now presented with the resolutions, in particular number 3 relating to the absence of a dividend because of the losses. A written question relates to this point. It is answered that the priority is to reduce the indebtedness.
Resignation!
We move on to questions from the floor. Nicolas Miguet, from the Arare association and holder of proxies, gets the microphone. He connects the questions, in particular the moving one of a ruined shareholder. He asks who takes care of the relations with the analysts, because ” the price plunged from 45 to 16 euros while that of Carrefour rose from 13 to 21 euros “. When is a dividend? What about the effect of rising interest rates? Jean-Charles Naouri does not want to answer.
The room, she yells at him to answer. We hear ” Resign, resign! Nicolas Miguet took over the microphone: When you ruin someone, you have to answer him! “. The CFO responds to certain elements, objectives not met, but the CEO remains silent. A precise answer from the financial director: a 1 point increase in rates implies a cost of 32 million euros.
A shareholder shouts: Give him a mic! because it is difficult to hear Nicolas Miguet. The question is about dirtiness and lack of staff at some Monoprix. Nicolas Miguet evokes what he calls contempt for shareholders and leaves the room.
Facing the Amazon titan
Question about CDiscount. Jean-Charles Naouri says that the site is ” against the titan that is Amazon ” but that ” the market place is profitable by construction because it sells a traffic of 22 million unique visitors by taking commissions » to hosted merchant sites.
Invest asks what the debt ratio would be at the end of the disposal plan and whether it would allow the resumption of the dividend. We also ask Jean-Charles Naouri “ why increase your fixed compensation if there has been no coupon for three years? “. The CFO says that the upcoming disposals of 1.5 billion compares to an Ebitda excluding rents excluding GreenYellow of 0.78 billion, a ratio drop of two points. It would already be possible to pay 100 million euros but the priority is to reduce debt. It is the CEO who answers on the remuneration, evoking a level below the average and the median of the SBF 80.
We go to the vote. The absence of a dividend is voted with 99.924% of the votes.
The executive’s 2022 compensation policy obtains a score of 97.176%. The one for 2021 gets 98.85%.