A Casino supermarket, July 5, 2023 in Ploubalay, in the Côtes-d’Armor (AFP / Damien MEYER)
The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire judged “solid” the two offers to take over the distributor in financial difficulty Casino, without taking sides, simply indicating that “the State will be vigilant on employment” and on maintaining the ” seat in Saint-Etienne”, Tuesday during questions to the government.
Questioned by the deputy of the Loire Quentin Bataillon (Renaissance), the Minister of the Economy spoke for the first time on the future of Casino, which “has been encountering major operational and financial difficulties for several months”.
He notably estimated that the group’s employees, 200,000 worldwide, including a quarter in France, “do not have to pay for the errors that may have been made by management”.
Regarding the takeover offers, one from the duo of billionaire shareholders of the distributor, Daniel Kretinsky and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, the other from the trio Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse, Moez-Alexandre Zouari, the Minister of the Economy indicated that “two proposals have been made, both are solid but the State does not have to take sides for one proposal or another”.
He specifies that the State will have “two points of attention, the solidity of the industrial project” on the one hand, and on the other employment, in particular “the future of the 50,000 employees of the group” in France as well as ” the future of the group’s 1,500 employees in Saint-Etienne”.
“There is no question that the historic headquarters of the group will be threatened by the takeover, regardless of the buyer who will be chosen”, further estimated Bruno Le Maire.
He recalled that the State had granted the distributor a deferral of social and tax charges, totaling around 300 million euros, due for the period from May to September 2023. “This aid will have to be reimbursed by the buyers to the State”, indicated the minister.
Casino, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary in this uncertain context, entered the conciliation procedure at the end of May until October 25 at the latest, in order to renegotiate with its creditors its debt, which amounts to 6.4 billion euros. of net debt.
© 2023 AFP
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