Casino transferred 61 stores to Intermarché

This is one of the first steps in the restructuring of Casino. In great financial difficulty and bought by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky last July, the distribution group has, as planned, “completed the sale of the first wave” of 61 stores to the Les Mousquetaires/Intermarché group. An announcement made official this Monday, October 2 by the two groups, citing an “enterprise value of 209 million euros including service stations” for this sale.

The two food distribution specialists, respectively the seventh and third players in the sector, agreed in May on a sale of 119 stores in two waves involving 4,000 employees, with an optional third of around sixty stores. The operation allows Casino to reduce its debt and Intermarché to increase its market share.

The two groups indicated in their respective press releases that the operations “were carried out on September 30” and that Casino “received the sale price”, while Les Mousquetaires have “already taken possession of 58 of the 61 points of sale sold” . The agreement between Casino and Intermarché provides that the second wave of transfer of around sixty stores will take place “within a maximum of three years”. With the possibility of a third sale, this time optional, of 60 other brands.

The omnipresent Daniel Kretinsky

This transfer takes place in a very troubled context for Casino, plagued by an unsustainable debt which it must restructure as part of a conciliation period with its creditors, recently extended until October 25 by the commercial court of Paris.

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 Daniel Kretinsky and his allies, the 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 the three work. quarters of the group’s 200,000 employees.

For Daniel Kretinsky, after his investments in the media (Marianne, Elle, Franc-Tireur), publishing (Editis) and now even IT services (Atos), the acquisition of Casino had confirmed the growing place taken by the Czech billionaire within the French business community.