A Casino supermarket in Ploubalay (Côtes-d’Armor), July 5, 2023 (AFP / Damien MEYER)
“Only other judges will be able to restore the legality of the situation”: the central social and economic committee (CSEC) of Distribution Casino France announced on Monday that it would appeal the judgment of the Paris commercial court endorsing the rescue plan for the distributor in difficulty .
“The CSEC of DCF, in full agreement with the unanimity of the union organizations, has taken the decision to appeal the judgment,” announced the CSEC and the group’s inter-union association in a joint press release on Monday.
“For the moment, this appeal is not suspensive and therefore has no effect on the implementation of the financial restructuring plan of DCF and the Group and on the resulting change of control and governance,” reacted the group Casino from AFP.
The Paris commercial court validated on February 26 the rescue plan for the distributor of Saint-Etienne origin, the last major step before the restructuring of its debt and its takeover by buyers, the billionaires Daniel Kretinsky and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière backed by to the Attestor investment fund.
A spokesperson for the buyers said on Monday that they were taking “note of this call which does not call into question our commitments” in terms of social support, “namely negotiating a voluntary departure plan, being better than company agreements and pay particular attention to the Saint-Etienne site.”
The group, which employed 50,000 people in France at the end of 2022 under well-known brands such as Casino, Franprix or Monoprix, could no longer meet its debt repayments. He also announced that he had had a catastrophic year in 2023, notably with a net loss of 5.7 billion euros for less than 9 billion euros in turnover.
The restructuring of Casino’s debt plans to wipe out around 5 billion euros of debts, and is made possible by the provision of new money to the tune of 1.2 billion euros, including more than 900 million by the consortium of buyers.
This is what the safeguard plan validated by the commercial court provides, although the DCF CSEC and the public prosecutor had issued an unfavorable opinion.
The administrators and legal representatives as well as the CSE of Distribution Casino France, the staff representative and the public prosecutor had the possibility of appealing. “In the absence of suspensive appeal, it is envisaged that all of the operations planned by the financial restructuring will be carried out on March 27, 2024,” Casino indicated at the end of February.
– Court of Appeal –
Casino employees demonstrate in front of the group’s headquarters in Saint-Etienne, December 5, 2023. (AFP / OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE)
However, the CSEC therefore appealed, which is however “not suspensive”, clarified one of its lawyers, Françoise Maréchal Thieullent. “Only that of the public prosecutor would be.”
“We hope that the prosecution will also appeal, so that justice is done,” indicated the CSEC during a press conference in Paris. In his eyes, “contrary to what management says, this appeal and the rejection of the plan will not necessarily imply a liquidation”.
“More than 6,000 jobs at least are threatened in the group, not to mention the 16,000 employees transferred with the stores who have at this stage no guarantee of not being made redundant following the transfers” of stores to Auchan, Intermarché and Carrefour, they said. deplored the CSEC and the group’s inter-union association in their joint press release.
The prosecution has ten days to appeal the judgment of the commercial court from the date of this judgment.
Concerning the CSEC appeal, the court of appeal could, given the urgency of the situation and according to the other lawyers of the employee representative body, Olivier Debeine and Matthieu Boissavy, rule within a tight timetable, undoubtedly here in summer.
If the court of appeal were to overturn the decision of the commercial court, the company Distribution Casino France, which today employs 18,000 of Casino’s 50,000 employees, would return to its economic situation prior to the accelerated safeguard plan, according to these lawyers.