PARIS (Reuters) – Casino announced on Monday that the Paris commercial court had extended by two months the safeguard procedure initiated at the end of October in order to implement the restructuring of the French mass distribution group’s debt.
The retailer, which has issued two profit warnings in recent months due to the worsening situation at its hypermarkets, is scrambling to reach a deal to avoid bankruptcy early next year, when the new management team led by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky should take control of the group.
France’s seventh-largest supermarket group by market share has found itself on the brink of bankruptcy after years of debt-financed acquisitions and recent losses to rivals.
In November, Casino confirmed having received preliminary expressions of interest with a view to acquiring stores in the hypermarket and supermarket perimeter, without however specifying the buyers or the number of stores that the company plans to sell.
Auchan and Intermarché have made a joint offer for all the stores Casino is seeking to sell to raise cash, while Leclerc and German discounter Lidl are also among potential bidders, sources said.
Potential buyers had to transform their indicative offers or expressions of interest into firm offers from December 8 and several of them did so, a source close to the matter said on Monday, without providing further details.
The Casino unions fear a dismantling of the distributor in the event of the sale of French hypermarkets and supermarkets and have asked to meet the Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire and French President Emmanuel Macron.
On Monday, Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, urged the French authorities to intervene.
“If Casino sells 400 hypermarkets, obviously behind it, the headquarters and warehouses will be oversized and there will be social damage. The government can put pressure on the buyers,” she declared on franceinfo.
If the sale of hypermarkets and supermarkets goes through, Monoprix and Franprix stores would mainly remain in the French scope.
Casino unions are calling for a new day of mobilization on December 17 in front of the company’s historic headquarters in Saint-Etienne (Loire).
(Reporting Dominique Vidalon, written by Kate Entringer, edited by Tangi Salaün)
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