(AOF) – For its resumption of listing, Casino is placed last on the SRD market in the wake of the effective completion of a massively dilutive financial restructuring. The stock collapsed by 66.60% to 0.0357 euros, having lost 95% of its market capitalization since the start of the year. In great difficulty, the Saint-Etienne distributor is now in the hands of Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the Attestor fund. The group is now led by a new team led by Laurent Pietraszewski and Philippe Palazzi.
The first is chairman of the board of directors while the second is director and general manager.
The operation “resulted in a change of control of the Casino group for the benefit of France Retail Holdings S.à rl, an entity ultimately controlled by Mr. Daniel Kretinsky”, details the company.
“It is a Parisian group from the point of view of turnover, but from the point of view of the number of stores, we are a very provincial company”, assured in an interview with AFP and Le Progrès broadcast yesterday evening the new general director, Philippe Palazzi. According to him, Casino is “not yet out of danger” and there will “probably be a voluntary departure plan”. Its goal is to make it a champion of “proximity”.
End of game for Jean-Charles Naouri
This new takeover therefore puts an end to the 20-year reign of Casino owner, Jean-Charles Naouri, aged 75.
Due to the low share price, the group intends to carry out a consolidation of the shares making up the share capital in April: 100 ordinary shares with a par value of one euro cent each will be exchanged for 1 new share of ‘a nominal value of one euro each.
Casino specifies in a press release that its annual general meeting will be held on June 11.
Remember that Casino suffered a net loss of 5.66 billion euros in 2023 compared to a loss of 316 million euros in 2022. Its Ebitda fell by 21.8%, including a negative scope effect of 7.4%. , at 765 million euros, reflecting a margin of 8.5%.
The distributor’s debt must be reduced from 7.4 billion euros at the end of 2023 to just over 2.6 billion euros, with repayment deadlines ranging from January 2027 to the end of March 2028.
The distributor’s French workforce will increase from 50,000 at the end of 2022 to 28,212 after the sale of numerous stores to its competitors Intermarché, Auchan and Carrefour.
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