(Boursier.com) — Kretinsky close to winning? The battle around the takeover of Casino took a turn on Sunday with the withdrawal of 3F Holding, Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari, leaving only the offer associating Daniel Kretinsky with Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière in the running. Casino had set candidates until the evening of July 14 to submit their revised restructuring offers.
3F announced in a press release that it would not submit an offer for the takeover of the Saint-Etienne group, denouncing a lack of information and a “biased” process, and leaving the field open to the rival proposal.
3F wrote in its press release that it had decided not to submit an offer, deploring that Casino did not provide the requested information on “the projection of liquidity and results needs by the end of the year, ( …) on the results of Cdiscount in the second quarter, as on all the off-balance sheet commitments that weigh on the group”. 3F also explains its withdrawal by its refusal because Casino has, according to him, “obviously already chosen its buyer”. This process, adds the investment vehicle of the Niel-Pigasse-Zouari trio, “does not give an equal chance to all candidates and the best possible chance to the Casino group and its employees”.
In an interview with Les Echos published before 3F’s announcement, Daniel Kretinsky said he had submitted a revised offer on Saturday to “take into account comments from secured creditors, but also to take into account, to some extent, the interests of unsecured creditors”. “The company’s net debt would be reduced by more than 6 billion euros, which, in our opinion, meets the requirements defined by Casino and provides a very clear solution. Of these 6 billion, there are 1.2 billion contribution of fresh money, the rest being the conversion of debt into capital”, details the Czech businessman.
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