PARIS (Reuters) – Casino confirmed on Tuesday that it had received two offers aimed at bolstering its equity as the heavily indebted retail group entered into negotiations with its creditors to restructure its debt.

An offer comes from the investment vehicle 3F Holding made up of the trio of businessmen comprising Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari.

The other proposal comes from the companies EP Global Commerce and Fimalac, two shareholders of Casino, associating the Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky with Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière.

“These two proposals will be analyzed and presented to the ad hoc committee of Casino’s board of directors today, then to the creditors in the context of a meeting organized on July 5 under the aegis of the conciliators,” Casino said in a press release. which specifies that no decision will be taken until the creditors have been consulted.

In a separate press release, 3F Holdings indicated that its offer aimed to inject 900 million euros into the group, slightly less than the 1.1 billion euros initially mentioned but an amount in line with the needs expressed. by Casino.

The proposal is based on “a long-term industrial and commercial project accompanied by reinforced financial means”, says 3F Holdings.

For his part, Daniel Kretinsky, already a 10% shareholder of Casino, proposed at the end of April to take control of the group via a capital increase of 1.1 billion euros involving Fimalac, the holding company of Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière. .

Whatever the proposal chosen, it will mark the loss of control of Jean-Charles Naouri after 30 years of stranglehold on the Saint-Etienne distributor.

In its press release, 3F specifies that its proposal foresees that Moez-Alexandre Zouari take the direction of the group.

These offers come as Casino launched official negotiations with its creditors at the end of May as part of a conciliation procedure before the courts intended to restructure its debt.

The group indicated Monday morning that it would request in the coming days “grace periods” from the commercial court in order to avoid a default in payment during the conciliation period when some of its creditors refused to grant a suspension of interest and maturity payments due during this period.

Casino also warned last week that the restructuring of its debt risked causing massive dilution for the group’s shareholders.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, Casino shares gained more than 4% in the first exchanges on Tuesday.

(Written by Blandine Hénault and Zhifan Liu, edited by Kate Entringer)

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