The Paris commercial court validates the safeguard plan of the Casino distributor (AFP/Archives/Damien MEYER)
The Paris commercial court validated on Monday the safeguard plan for the distributor Casino, according to the judgment consulted on Monday by AFP, paving the way for the restructuring of its debt and its takeover by a consortium led by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky .
The group employing around 50,000 people in France had been negotiating for months to restructure its debt which had become unsustainable and entered into accelerated safeguarding at the end of October. “There is reason to adopt the draft accelerated safeguard plan presented by the company” Distribution Casino France, the court ruled.
In total, seven companies belonging to the Casino group were subject to an accelerated safeguard procedure.
This restructuring is made possible by the contribution of new money from buyers also including the billionaire Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the Attestor investment fund.
“From April, the management team, led by its general manager Philippe Palazzi, will implement an ambitious plan of reorganization, investment and modernization to establish the development of the group’s brands”, in particular Monoprix and Franprix, the buyers reacted in a press release on Monday.
Daniel Kretinsky believes that this rescue plan will make it possible to “restore the means and thereby breathing space” to a group that has been “resized, reorganized and deleveraged”, to “build a future for these beautiful French brands and their competent and motivated employees.” “.
“The road will still be long, with difficult times and will require a lot of effort from everyone, but I have no doubt of the success of our mission,” observed the businessman.
The distributor’s current shareholders, starting with the first of them Jean-Charles Naouri, will be very massively diluted. The future of the man who has been CEO of this former retail flagship since 2005 is not known.
Casino will change a lot in the coming months: in addition to the change of shareholders, it has “dealed” with its competitors Auchan, Intermarché and Carrefour to sell them 288 large stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets, and their more than 12,000 employees, in three successive waves between the end of April and the beginning of July.
There would then remain a few Casino stores which are the subject of “marks of interest” from buyers, a network of more than 6,000 local stores in the regions under the Spar, Vival or Le Petit Casino brands, the e-retailer CDiscount, a thousand of Franprix stores (including 75% franchise), and Monoprix (including Naturalia).
© 2024 AFP
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