Casino officially transferred 61 stores to Intermarché

The struggling distribution group Casino has, as expected, “completed the sale of the first wave” of 61 stores to the Les Mousquetaires/Intermarché group, the two groups made official on Monday, citing an “enterprise value of 209 million euros including including service stations” for this transfer.

The two food distribution specialists, respectively the seventh and third players in the sector, agreed in May on a sale of 119 stores in two waves involving 4,000 employees, with an optional third of around sixty stores. The operation allows Casino to reduce its debt and Intermarché to increase its market share.

Also read: TotalEnergies, Intermarché, Système U... Faced with the explosion in fuel prices, distributors are making a move

The two groups indicated in their respective press releases that the operations “were carried out on September 30” and that Casino “received the sale price”, while Les Mousquetaires have “already taken possession of 58 of the 61 points of sale sold” . The transition to the “Intermarché or Netto” brand is planned “during October”, the time necessary for the brand change work. It is specified that a store in Confrançon in Ain “will be subject to a subsequent transfer” and is not taken into account in the data mentioned elsewhere. The agreement between Casino and Intermarché provides that the second wave of transfer of around sixty stores will take place “within a maximum of three years”. This agreement also provides for an extension of their purchasing partnerships, in particular through a supply agreement "with the seafood and butchery sectors" of the Mousquetaires, who have the particularity in the mass distribution sector of having a important agri-food production network.

This agreement comes in a troubled context for Casino, plagued by an unsustainable debt that it must restructure as part of a conciliation period with its creditors, recently extended until October 25 by the Paris commercial court. . At the end of July, the group's key creditors undertook “to support and carry out any steps or actions reasonably necessary” so that Casino could restructure its debt, and thus to accept the takeover offer from the Czech Daniel Kretinsky and his allies. , billionaire Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the British fund Attestor.

This offer provides for the contribution of 1.2 billion euros in new money and the reduction of nearly 5 billion euros in the group's debt, as well as the sale of the Casino activities in Latin America for which the three work. quarters of the group's 200,000 employees.