Casino’s two takeover offers were submitted to the troubled distributor’s creditors on Wednesday, under the aegis of conciliators appointed by the Paris Commercial Court to help the group reduce its debt. The group, which employs 200,000 people, including a large part in France, had announced that the two offers would be presented “to the creditors in the framework of a meeting organized on July 5 under the aegis of the conciliators” and two sources familiar with with the matter He indicated that the meeting was held on Wednesday morning.
The trio maintains the level of jobs, the duo contributes more funds
The teams of billionaire duo Daniel Kretinsky and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, and the trio Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari, have informed the group’s creditors of their project. The latter had indicated on Tuesday that they planned to invest “with (some) financial partners” 900 million euros in the Casino group. Half of this contribution will be in the form of shares and the other half from a debt issue, Casino said Tuesday night. They claim the “support of a large group of creditors” from Casino, and their offer provides, according to the distributor, the “maintenance of the current level of jobs.”
Opposite, Daniel Kretinsky and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière have made a firm offer that provides for a total of 1,350 million euros in shares (including some 900 million for themselves) and to convert 5,000 million euros of gross debt into approximately 500 million euros capital. Faced with creditors, his teams have proposed in particular to increase partnerships in hypermarkets and supermarkets with “leaders in their trades” to whom to grant retail space, citing in particular fruit and vegetables, butchers, bakeries or high-tech, according to a source familiar with the discussions. According to this same source, the “purchase synergy study” with the Metro group, of which Daniel Kretinsky is the majority shareholder, was also mentioned. The Czech billionaire is also the largest shareholder in the Fnac Darty group. On Tuesday night, Casino said its offer “did not explicitly mention the level of job retention.”
End of control of the company by Jean-Charles Naouri
These capital contribution offers are part of the conciliation procedure initiated at the end of May by the group. Casino is trying to renegotiate its large debt – 6.4 billion euros of net debt – with its creditors, but it also needs capital. These are not offers submitted to a commercial court, as in the case of a receivership, for example. In the context of a conciliation, it is the company, in this case Casino, that will have the last word on the chosen solutions.
The distributor, however, indicated on Tuesday that “whatever the final restructuring plan is, Casino’s shareholders would be massively diluted”, which would put an end to the control of the company by its historic boss Jean-Charles Naouri. The distributor’s share price plummeted 32.94% to 3.07 euros this Wednesday, trading at all-time lows.
Source: BFM TV
