In accelerated backup, Casino is moving forward with the restructuring of its debt

The distributor Casino, in financial difficulties, has taken a new step in the restructuring of its debt: it announced on Wednesday its entry into the accelerated safeguard procedure for a minimum of two months, which should allow it to move forward in the handover to the trio Daniel Kretinsky, Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and Attestor.

The latter three came to the aid of the group of Saint-Etienne origin, strangled by a debt of 6.4 billion euros at the end of 2022, by planning to provide 1.2 billion euros of new money under reserve of the reduction of almost 5 billion euros in Casino’s debt.

The group, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year and which has 200,000 employees worldwide, including 50,000 in France, under well-known brands such as Monoprix, Franprix or Grupo de Acucar, must also be relieved of its activities in Latin America.

The holders of its debt still had to accept the terms of its renegotiation, which meant significant financial losses for many of them.

An amicable agreement was reached at the end of July, before a binding agreement at the beginning of October, allowing the majority of them to be convinced.

The group announced on Wednesday that it was entering into an accelerated backup procedure “for an initial period of two months, which may be renewed for an additional two months without exceeding a total duration of four months maximum”.

This procedure should also make it possible to onboard recalcitrant creditors “in a forced manner if necessary” since the law provides for it, several sources noted at the end of July when the agreement in principle was signed.

Casino specifies that the procedure “only concerns the financial debt” and will have “no impact on the group’s relations” with its operational partners, in particular its suppliers or its franchisees.

– Horizon April 30 –

The company, which must publish its third quarter sales on October 31 before the opening of the financial markets, further indicates that “the implementation of the capital increases envisaged within the framework of the financial restructuring plan” should be carried out “d by April 30, 2024 at the latest.

In the meantime, steps remain to be taken, including an “independent expert report confirming the fair nature of the financial conditions of the restructuring for Casino shareholders”.

In addition, stakeholders will have to obtain regulatory authorizations in the context of the control of mergers and foreign investments and authorization by the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) of an exemption from the obligation to submit an offer. public takeover bid on Casino. This is possible when a company is “in proven financial difficulty”.

In mid-September, representatives of the distributor’s employees were concerned about the group’s commercial situation until it was taken over by the new team, while Casino suffered a massive net loss of 2.23 billion euros in the first half-year, partly due to an impressive decline in its sales in hypermarkets and supermarkets in the second quarter.

But the group, which received significant cash at the end of September as part of the sale of a significant number of stores to its competitor Intermarché, is very confident in this matter.

At the end of the Casino debt restructuring operation, its current CEO and largest shareholder Jean-Charles Naouri will lose control, the group recalled on Wednesday in its press release.

It is the former executive of the German distributor Metro – of which the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky is a major shareholder – and of the agro-industrial giant Lactalis, Philippe Palazzi, who will be proposed by the buyers as future CEO of the group.

© 2023 AFP

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