An aging king. Rowdy pretenders to the throne. A crumpled son. The collapse of Casino, the distribution empire built by Jean-Charles Naouri, 74, has everything of a Shakespearean drama. For thirty years, Mr. Naouri was one of the most formidable predators of French capitalism. Its fall, no one will be surprised, attracts the best hunters of the moment.
On the one hand, the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky (indirect shareholder of the World), 47 years old, on the lookout in all directions in France, from Editis to the outsourcing of Atos, allied with Fimalac, the holding company of Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, 82 years old. On the other, Xavier Niel, 55 (founder of Iliad) and Matthieu Pigasse, 55, (Paris boss of the American investment bank Centerview), both individual shareholders of the Worldassociated with Moez-Alexandre Zouari, 52 years old (one of the most important Franprix franchisees).
The Casino conciliators, Aurelia Perdereau and Marc Sénéchal, asked them to file, by Monday July 3, their detailed takeover offer, aimed at injecting at least 900 million euros into the capital of the owner of Monoprix, Franprix and CDiscount. In the meantime, the stock market tumble of Casino is accentuated. The price fell by more than 32%, falling to 5 euros, in the meeting of Thursday, June 29, after the confirmation by the group that the shareholders would be “massively diluted”.
A pure battle of influence
Curious, all the same, these three shareholders of the daily newspaper founded by Hubert Beuve-Méry disputing pallets and linear. In recent months, Mr. Niel, whose fortune is estimated at 6.4 billion dollars (5.8 billion euros) by the magazine Forbesand Mr. Kretinsky (9.4 billion dollars) had clashed for control of the M6 channel, the rescue of France Antilles or the recapitalization of the online media Raw. A pure battle of influence. But when the appetite of wild animals slips from the typo to the warehouses, from the video to the cart, obviously, it’s for the money. But not only. Between the troublemaker of telecoms who took a liking to financial blows and the coal emperor who made France his catchment area, successive rivalries necessarily lead to an existential question: who’s the boss?
Attention, no personal hostility opposes the two tycoons, insists their entourage. Even if, between them, everything had started badly. Four years ago, Mr. Kretinsky’s relations with Mr. Pigasse and with Mr. Niel were very tense, the two co-shareholders of the World since 2010 showing themselves cold. A mess that originated in March 2019, when the BPCE bank demanded from Mr. Pigasse the immediate repayment of a loan granted to finance his investment in The world.
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