French grocer Casino Guichard Perrachon SA is beginning court-supervised talks with its creditors, a process that could clear the way for the debt-laden company to land an equity investment from Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky. It’s also selling stores.
(Bloomberg) — French grocer Casino Guichard Perrachon SA is beginning court-supervised talks with its creditors, a process that could clear the way for the debt-laden company to land an equity investment from Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky. It’s also selling stores.
The so-called conciliation process will last up to five months, the company said in a statement Friday. Casino shares, which had been suspended since before the market opened Tuesday, dropped 9.7% to €6.11 at 9:13 a.m. in Paris.
Separately, Casino also announced an agreement to sell some stores with about €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in annual sales to retailer Groupement Les Mousquetaires. Casino also will sell another group of markets, with €550 million in sales, to Les Mousquetaires within three years, the company said.
Casino sought the talks to negotiate with creditors in private about a proposal from Kretinsky, who’s an existing shareholder in the company, to fix its balance sheet, as well as a plan to merge Casino assets in France with retailer Teract SA.
Last month, Kretinsky proposed that Casino raise €1.1 billion in equity, of which he would provide €750 million. One of the conditions of the offer is that the grocer needs to buy back unsecured debt and convert a substantial amount into equity. Casino’s consolidated net debt stood at €5.1 billion as of March 31, the latest report available. Casino said at the time that it would consider seeking a conciliation process to win creditor approval for the deal.
That could potentially solve Casino’s debt problem, while taking control out of the hands of Chairman Jean-Charles Naouri, who has a majority stake via his Rallye SA holding company.
Read more: Casino Guichard Lenders Engage Advisers Ahead of Debt Talks
Creditors agreed to let Casino ask the Paris Commercial Court to open the conciliation proceedings without it being considered a default, Casino said. Conciliation is a voluntary proceeding in French law in which a company and its lenders renegotiate debt terms under the supervision of a court-appointed agent.
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:
Groupe Casino’s acceptance of a future €100 million equity investment from Groupement Les Mousquetaires in return for selling some stores seems to signal that there will be heavily dilutive new equity investment, with Teract and, likely, EP Global Commerce (which has proposed a €1.1 billion equity raise) participating. This comes in parallel with the opening of conciliation with financial creditors, which implies that despite €4.2 billion in French asset disposals and the €723 million stake sales in Assai, the company’s debt burden is unsustainable.
Casino Lines Up New Equity as Debt Conciliation Starts: React
Casino has been struggling in particular with its operations in France, where it’s been burning cash. Last year the company had an average drawdown of €1.23 billion out of the €2.1 billion it had available, pointing to a liquidity stretch.
Read more: Paris Grocery Titan Naouri Turns to Protege to Save Empire
In the deal with Les Mousquetaires, Casino didn’t disclose how many stores would be sold and for how much. Les Mousquetaires will also take a minority €100 million equity investment in the future financing round of Casino, the grocer said. This won’t clash with Casino’s plan to negotiate a joint venture with Teract, the food-retail startup backed by billionaire Xavier Niel, according to Casino.
Casino’s shares have plunged more than 90% over the past decade, touching a record low in March, while its bonds are priced at distressed levels as investors bet a default is looming.
The conciliation procedure only applies to the financial debt of the group and some of its subsidiaries including Cdiscount and will have no impact on operational partners including suppliers or company employees, Casino said.
(Updates with stock move in second paragraph.)
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