The Casino group announced this Friday, September 29, in a press release that it had “extended until October 3” the deadline for concluding a binding agreement with its creditors, previously expected “during the month of September.”
Casino “announces that it has extended until October 3 the deadline for concluding a ‘lock-up’ agreement (binding agreement, Editor’s note) with its creditors, that is to say an agreement under which the signatories undertake to support and carry out any approach or action reasonably necessary for the implementation and completion of the financial restructuring of the group”, it is indicated. “This extension will allow the continuation of current negotiations,” indicates the group strangled by a colossal debt which amounted to 6.4 billion euros at the end of 2022.
At the end of July, the group’s key creditors undertook “to support and carry out any steps or actions reasonably necessary” so that Casino could restructure its debt, and thus to accept the takeover offer from the Czech Daniel Kretinsky and his allies. , billionaire Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the British fund Attestor.
This offer provides for the contribution of 1.2 billion euros in new money and the reduction of nearly 5 billion euros in the group’s debt, as well as the sale of the Casino activities in Latin America for which three quarters work. of the group’s approximately 200,000 employees. The handover between the current majority shareholder, CEO Jean-Charles Naouri, and the buyers is expected at the beginning of 2024.