The distributor Casino, in financial difficulty, announced on Tuesday July 4 that it had received two separate proposals to strengthen its equity. One of these offers comes from its shareholders, the billionaires Daniel Kretinsky and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, the other from the trio of businessmen Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari.
The two proposals will be studied by Casino’s board of directors on Tuesday, then by the group’s creditors on Wednesday, July 5, specifies Casino. “No decision on these proposals will be taken” before discussions with creditors. The offers will be made public on Wednesday after the close of trading.
The contenders for the rescue or takeover of the Saint-Etienne group, 200,000 employees worldwide, including a quarter in France, had until Monday July 3 to submit their offers, while the French distributor, which hopes to see its future become clearer by the end of July, has asked for “grace periods” for not honoring certain debts.
Daniel Kretinsky, already a Casino shareholder with more than 10%
The group had announced Monday morning that it would “request from the President of the Commercial Court, in the coming days, the application of grace periods”. These deadlines would suspend the payments, the time that the renegotiation of the debts took place, within the framework of the procedure of conciliation opened at the end of May and which can last until the end of October. At present, the group’s net debt amounts to a total of 6.4 billion euros and that of its parent company Rallye to around 3 billion euros.
In addition, Casino announced Monday that it had not respected the obligation on June 30 to have a gross debt that does not exceed 3.5 times its gross operating surplus. Failure to comply with this obligation is synonymous with default of payment for the group. The creditors concerned were therefore asked not to ask for reimbursement during the conciliation. As of Monday, “these lenders have not responded to the request,” Casino said.
The Czech Daniel Kretinsky, already a Casino shareholder with more than 10% and who wishes to take control, is ready to inject 750 million euros. Provided that the debt is reduced, with a capital increase of more than one billion euros to which would subscribe up to 150 million euros Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière (Fimalac), also a shareholder (12% of the capital) and close to CEO Jean-Charles Naouri.
For their part, the trio of businessmen Xavier Niel (Free), Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari said they were potentially ready to invest up to 300 million euros in the context of “strengthening equity (together with other players) of up to €1.1 billion”.