(AFP / DAMIEN MEYER)
Disgruntled small shareholders, questions about the future of the group, absent CEO: Casino shareholders voted Thursday in Paris on the safeguard plan negotiated with creditors and buyers, at the cost of a drastic reduction in their share of the capital .
The result of the vote is expected by Friday morning, and there is little doubt as the main stakeholders have already given their approval.
In addition, recalled Aurélia Perdereau, one of the judicial administrators, this plan is “the only solution on the table allowing us to make viable” a group in great financial distress.
“Casino gave me a lot of stock options at 70 euros, which are worth nothing today, a few cents.” Like this former Toulouse employee of the group, Laurent Durand, the current shareholders of the distributor in great financial difficulty will pay the price for the current rescue.
The latter will allow the takeover of Casino by billionaires Daniel Kretinsky and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, backed by the British fund Attestor.
If the arrival of buyers makes it possible to envisage a future for the group which still employed 200,000 people worldwide at the end of 2022, including 50,000 in France, the rescue operation will considerably reduce the weight of the group’s current shareholders.
Current majority shareholder, Rallye (controlled Jean-Charles Naouri) will only hold 0.12% of the capital.
– More than 20,000 euros gone –
The damage is even heavier for those who have been shareholders for a long time: the distributor’s shares were still trading above 70 euros in the mid-2010s, before collapsing spectacularly. It was worth just over 50 cents on Thursday.
“I regularly bought back shares (…) but I only increased my loss,” explained to AFP in May an individual shareholder who did not wish to be identified and estimated her capital loss to be greater than 20,000 euros. . “At 9 euros, I thought we were at our lowest”, regretted this customer of the Monoprix brand, “not happy at all with this journey on the stock market”.
The group’s financial director David Lubek, who defended the point of view of the current team on Thursday in the absence of the CEO and largest shareholder for a few more months, Jean-Charles Naouri, said he “understands and shares the disappointment of the shareholders “.
It is a “painful and sensitive meeting for many of you” shareholders, also recognized Hélène Bourbouloux, one of the three judicial administrators present on the stage of the Maison de la Mutualité in Paris, with Frédéric Abitbol and Aurélia Partridge.
Of the hundred shareholders present, some including the press publisher and politician Nicolas Miguet, a small shareholder of the group claiming the support of “hundreds of shareholders”, made their discontent heard.
Mr. Miguet is targeted alongside Casino by a preliminary investigation for suspicion of stock price manipulation, “active and passive private corruption” and “insider trading committed during 2018 and 2019”, alleged facts which they contest.
Other shareholders also questioned the future of the group, in discussions to sell several hundred stores to its competitors Intermarché and Auchan.
– “Long-term investor” –
Casino’s flight plan for the coming years was presented by Philippe Palazzi, who will become the group’s general manager once the buyers take control by March/April this year.
He presented the broad outlines of an objective of “profitable and responsible growth”, with an investment program of 300 million euros per year until 2028 to straighten out the accounts.
Asked about the future of the current team, he indicated that he planned “changes”, but “will also keep the competent people”.
Present at his side, the lawyer Saam Golshani, who is supporting Daniel Kretinsky in the takeover of Casino, has brushed aside the doubts of a shareholder about the desire to sell the group separately.
The Czech billionaire is “by nature a long-term investor”, who has “made other investments in distribution in other countries and only makes very few sales”, he said.