(AOF) – The AMF announces that in its decision of September 7, 2023, its Sanctions Commission imposed a financial penalty of 25 million euros against the company Rallye, parent company of Casino, and against Franck Hattab, general manager and head of financial communications of Rallye at the material time, a financial penalty of 1 million euros “for having disseminated false or misleading information likely to fix the price of the Rallye share at an abnormal or artificial level. »
The AMF College accused Rallye and Franck Hattab of having disseminated false or misleading information on the financial situation of the company on 11 occasions between March 8, 2018 and May 15, 2019 in 14 communication media presenting in particular ” Rallye’s 2017 annual results, its 2018 half-year results and its 2018 annual results”.
The Sanctions Commission “has retained all of the complaints notified”. It thus considered that Rallye had disseminated false or misleading information which gave investors “a more favorable image of its liquidity situation than it really was”, in particular by qualifying, “without nuance”, this situation of “solid” or “very solid”. Indeed, due to certain clauses and guarantees appearing in the financing contracts, its liquidity situation “depended to a greater extent than what Rallye’s financial communication suggested, on the evolution of the price of the Casino share, which was very volatile and was under persistent downward pressure.
AOF – LEARN MORE
Find out more about the “mass distribution” sector
Two major challenges for the sector
The turnover of distribution brands increased by 6.6% in the third quarter of 2022 according to the IRI panelist. Such a performance had not been recorded since the confinements of 2020. However, since the end of September, volumes have declined following the increase in prices. The results of French players, rather spared until now, should therefore suffer. Moreover, in the United States, Walmart and Target have issued warnings about their results.
Another challenge: logistical disorganization. According to NielsenIQ data, the out-of-stock rate increased further on the shelves to reach 5.8% at the end of October. This represents a shortfall of 3.5 billion euros since the start of the year. According to Système U, these disorders have never been observed for more than fifty years. The reasons are multiple: both climatic, geopolitical, logistical, inflationary, and also linked to the behavior of consumers, who stock certain items. On the other hand, the strike in the refineries seems to have had little impact because the brands managed to organize themselves.