Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky and ally Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière are set to take control of debt-laden French grocer Casino Guichard Perrachon SA after gaining support from key creditors with an improved offer.
(Bloomberg) — Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky and ally Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière are set to take control of debt-laden French grocer Casino Guichard Perrachon SA after gaining support from key creditors with an improved offer.
A rival bidding group — telecommunications billionaire Xavier Niel, banker Matthieu Pigasse and grocery entrepreneur Moez-Alexandre Zouari — on Sunday pulled out of the competition to inject equity and restructure the ailing grocer’s balance sheet. They said they decided not to submit an improved bid after failing to receive information they had required from the company and the main secured creditor backing their proposal, credit fund Attestor Capital, sided with Kretinsky.
The new offer involves a smaller equity check — €1.2 billion instead of €1.35 billion — and a smaller conversion of secured debt into equity at €1.35 billion versus €1.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing private information. The change means better terms of conversion for secured creditors than in the previous offer.
The details were earlier reported in an interview with Kretinsky in French daily Les Echos. A representative for Kretinsky declined to comment.
In addition to Attestor, debt holders Davidson Kempner Capital Management, Farallon Capital Management, Monarch Alternative Capital and Sculptor Capital Management are now backing the Kretinsky offer, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
Kretinsky built a fortune in part with investments in the energy sector around Europe. He’s described himself as a francophile, and his holdings in France include his stake in Casino, publishing firm Editis and holdings in French daily Le Monde and retailer Fnac Darty.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said last week that both offers to re-capitalize Casino were solid and it’s not the state’s role to take sides, signaling it would be no problem for a non-French investor to be the largest shareholder of the grocer. In the Covid-19 crisis, France blocked the sale of grocer Carrefour SA to a Canadian company, saying the country needed to maintain domestic control over its food supply.
Read more: Billionaire Kretinsky Bought a French Castle for $43 Million
The debt restructuring will almost wipe out the value of the company’s shares, Casino has said, and the company’s chairman and CEO, Jean-Charles Naouri, will lose his control of the business. Trading in Casino shares was suspended early Monday.
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