Before leaving his position as CEO of the distributor Casino, Jean-Charles Naouri expressed his satisfaction after the agreement reached with the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his allies on the rescue of the group.
“I put all my energy” so that Casino whose “the financial situation was compromised two or three months ago, no longer in this position. I am proud of myself. It was not won”he said in an interview with the magazine Point put online on Wednesday August 2 in the evening.
“My point of honor is to ensure that Casino (…) is saved”he said, adding that he had spared no effort to ensure that the group was not “broken into pieces, after a bloodbath”.
Announced on July 28, the agreement in principle for financial restructuring concluded between the distributor Casino, its buyers, the billionaires Daniel Kretinsky (indirect shareholder of World), Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the Attestor fund, and its key creditors is “a strong legal promise”, judge Mr. Naouri. He believes that with this agreement “group assets, stores and teams are not affected”. “I am satisfied with it and I think I have done my duty”he welcomes.
A debt of 6.4 billion euros
Strangled by a debt of 6.4 billion euros, Casino has taken a major step in its rescue by signing an agreement in principle, which has yet to be approved and finalized. “We have had intense discussions with the creditors”And “even if there is still a lot of work to do, we can say that the mission is largely accomplished”estimates the founder and majority shareholder of the Casino group, of which he will only hold 0.15% through the parent company, Rallye, itself in the process of conciliation with its creditors.
The billionaire duo Kretinsky-Ladreit de Lacharrière found themselves alone in the running in mid-July after their competitors, the trio Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari, gave up their takeover offer.
Jean-Charles Naouri was pleased that Casino had initially received two offers, enough “create a competitive dynamic and you inevitably have an offer at the end”did he declare. “I continue to think that Casino remains one of the finest distribution groups in France” and that he is “composed of excellent active ingredients”he said.
Attack “in pack”
In this interview, Jean-Charles Naouri dates the beginning of Casino’s decline to December 2015, when the activist fund Muddy Waters, founded by Carson Block, published a highly critical report on Casino’s management. The title Casino had immediately fallen sharply on the Paris Stock Exchange.
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The CEO laments an attack that then takes place “in pack” And ” simultaneously “led in total by “seventeen funds based on the five continents” – against a group which had had the support of twenty-one banks, “mostly foreign banks” – and against which “the French authorities are powerless”.
“There should be national legislation protecting French companies allowing them to defend themselves against such attacks, in particular by obliging funds to answer legitimate questions”believes Mr. Naouri. “Somehow these funds have won by financially asphyxiating the group”he regrets.