Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA raised 4.1 billion reais ($783 million) with the sale of another stake in Latin American subsidiary Assai as the French grocer seeks to reduce its debt load, people familiar with the matter said.
(Bloomberg) — Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA raised 4.1 billion reais ($783 million) with the sale of another stake in Latin American subsidiary Assai as the French grocer seeks to reduce its debt load, people familiar with the matter said.
Casino sold 174 million shares of Assai at 16 reais apiece, said the people, asking not to be named because the information isn’t public yet. That represents a discount of about 1.5% from Thursday’s close. An additional allotment of 80 million shares was fully sold, with Casino’s stake in the Brazilian wholesaler dropping to 11.7% from 30.5% prior to the transaction, the people said.
Casino and Assai, which is formally known as Sendas Distribuidora SA, didn’t immediately reply to emailed requests looking for comment sent outside business hours.
The sale is Brazil’s first equity offering this year, with turmoil about the nation’s new government, high interest rates and surprise corporate meltdowns roiling markets. Concerns about the US financial system this past week roiled global assets, adding more volatility.
Casino, meanwhile, has been divesting assets as investors grow increasingly concerned about the grocer’s financial leverage. The grocer’s notes due in March 2024 last changed hands at around 68 cents on the euro, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The sale “suggests that the French operating performance won’t be strong enough to generate sufficient cash, and points to the deconsolidation of its most attractive Latin American division,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Charles Allen wrote in a note.
The Brazilian stock market had last seen an equity offering in December, when G2D Investments Ltd raised 70 million reais in a sale of depositary receipts. A month earlier, Casino sold about 2.7 billion reais in Assai shares.
Banks running the deal were Banco BTG Pactual SA, Banco Bradesco BBI SA, Banco Itau BBA SA and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., UBS BB Investment Bank, Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG, Banco Safra SA and Banco Santander Brasil SA also helped on the sale.
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