The Casino group gives priority to its debt reduction and avoids angry questions during its general meeting

2023-05-11 00:26:21

“On what basis [Daniel] Does Kretinsky rely on it to assert that a capital increase of 1.1 billion euros is necessary? » “What will be the impact on the capital of the entry of the Teract structure? » “The more the debt reduction plan advances, the more the debt increases and the more the stock market collapses. » “Until when will the Casino group be run like a ZAD? »

Among the approximately 500 shareholders, i.e. 60% of voters, present on Wednesday May 10 at the Maison de la Chimie in Paris for the general meeting of the Casino group, which operates 9,100 stores under different brands (Casino, Monoprix, Franprix, etc.), many had come to express their exasperation and especially to seek answers on the capitalistic operations in progress… Which they did not have. The Casino Group’s senior management did not leave the agenda, eluding them with a “These questions should be put to Mr. Kretinsky himself”, or by directing them to refer to the various press releases “Sent April 24. We have no further comments on the Teract project”.

This did not prevent the shareholders from calmly approving all the resolutions put to the vote. While being very perplexed about the group’s recovery capacities at the end of the meeting. Like Denis, this individual shareholder who “had bought his shares at 60 euros, and which are now worth less than 7 euros” – and does not understand “why Casino is not launching a capital increase” to which he would subscribe. Or even Anne, who no longer believes in it. “No one goes to them anymore because they are not competitive “. And as far as current projects are concerned, she has “the impression that we are being led through the flour”.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Casino: two offers to save the distributor, one with Intermarché and Teract, the other initiated by Kretinsky

Through two separate press releases, the Casino Group had reported on April 24 on exclusive discussions with a view to bringing together its French retail brands with the Teract group (Jardiland, Gamm vert, Boulangerie Louise), whose majority shareholder is the agri-food giant InVivo, joined by the Intermarché group. It also informed of an offer from the Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky (indirect shareholder of the Monde), supported by Fimalac, the holding company of Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, proposing to bail out the Casino group through a capital increase of 1.1 billion euros.

Untenable situation

While the group is crumbling under 6.4 billion euros in debt (compared to 5.8 billion in 2021), deleveraging is the “top priority” hammered its leaders during the general assembly. According to CEO Jean-Charles Naouri, there remains “for sale around 300 million euros of assets in France” before the end of the year. This divestment strategy does not appear, however, to be sufficient to clean up the balance sheet in a difficult context, particularly for the Casino supermarkets and hypermarkets in France: the money from the disposals is used to finance the activity and not to repay the loans.

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