The “three musketeers” Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari officially positioned themselves to climb into the capital of the Casino group on June 13, 2023.
An offer of 1 billion euros was thus made to the group led by Jean-Charles Nouari.
Will the “three musketeers” save the Casino group?
For many years now, for nearly a decade, the Casino group has been in the grip of major financial difficulties. The situation is still particularly complex to envisage a serene future within the company, since it would be indebted, at the end of its 2022 financial year, to the tune of 6.4 billion euros, of which 4.5 billion euros for its activities in France alone. In this perspective, the CEO of the Casino group, Jean-Charles Nouari, requested the opening of a conciliation procedure with its creditors on May 26, 2023 for a period of 4 months, with the aim of restructuring the debt. of the group.
A week after expressing their interest, the trio of businessmen Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari would therefore have submitted an offer of 1 billion euros to increase their presence in the capital of the Casino group. The media Challenges adds that the offer has already been sent to the board of directors of the Casino group. For details, 300 million euros should come directly from the pocket of the three French investors, and 700 million euros would come from a fundraiser ” probably other investors, shareholders and creditors of Casino “, according Challenges. The Casino group must in particular repay 3 billion euros in the next two years, or nearly half of its debt. Suffice to say that time is running out.
Who makes up this trio of “musketeers”?
Xavier Niel, who has acquired a certain notoriety as the founder and main shareholder of the Iliad group, parent company of Free, has been firing on all cylinders in recent months in terms of investments. The tenth French fortune according to Challenges notably submitted a new TV channel project in 2023 to replace M6, ultimately rejected by ARCOM, and also invested in digital media Raw.
For his part, Matthieu Pigasse is present, among other things, in the media world as owner and president of the holding company Les Nouvelles Éditions Indépendantes. He is also a shareholder in the Le Monde group and the Huffington Post. Much less known in the tech world, Moez-Alexandre Zouari is the CEO of the Zouari group. In particular, he holds 49% of the shares of Picard Surgelés and therefore has significant economic ties with the Casino group while ranking, according to Challengeslike the 128e French fortune in 2021.
This offer from the trio of French businessmen should put out of the race that of 750 million euros from the Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky, who had expressed his interest in a complete takeover of the group after having failed to materialize that of the M6 group.
Sources: The gallery, BFM TV, Challenges
1