France: Casino group sells hypermarkets and supermarkets to pay off debts.
Even the hypertrophied world of French large-scale retail trade had its own small revolution at the end of November. On the 27th the Casino group announced the sale of its hypermarkets and supermarkets to deal with debts accumulated over time which had become too expensive with the increase in interest rates.
In a press release dated November 30, the sixth French large-scale retail group confirmed that it had "so far received indicative preliminary offers from several buyers, relating to different perimeters of hypermarkets and supermarkets", without providing further details. Among these there is an alliance between Intermarché and Auchan, confirmed to LSA by a source close to the brands. A surprising marriage at first sight. What do a group of 3,000 independent entrepreneurs, third on the food distribution podium and on the offensive, have in common with an integrated, family-run group, fifth in the ranking, which is in the process of transforming its 119 hypermarkets (136 including affiliates )? Yet, to take over the hypermarket and supermarket branch of the Casino group, Thierry Cotillard, president of SLM (Société Les Mousquetaires), and the managers of Auchan Retail have decided to make common cause.
The stakes are considerable, namely the purchase of 52 Casino hypermarkets and 353 Casino supermarkets (60 of which are franchises). According to consensus forecasts from analysts, their combined turnover should not exceed 5.5 billion euros by the end of the year. Summer and autumn were fatal for Casino stores: similar sales in hypermarkets fell by 18.6% in the third quarter and those in supermarkets by 11.5%. An underestimated factor, but which also indicates that, in general, the French economy is less brilliant than what is shown externally.
The group had to issue two profit warnings in quick succession, warning of an operating loss of at least 100 million euros. This was enough for the future owner of the group, a trio made up of the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, Fimalac, the company managed by Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, and the Attestor fund, to decide to take the next step and put pressure on Jean-Charles Naouri, still the owner, to put the group's core business up for sale.
It is well known that opening a supermarket in France today is no mean feat. This undertaking will soon be made even more difficult by Article 215 of the Climate and Resilience Law approved on 22 August 2021, which establishes that exemptions cannot be granted for the opening of sales surfaces exceeding 10,000 m², so those who have these surfaces has a little treasure. As for exemption requests for all projects with a sales area exceeding 3,000 m², they will be examined by the prefect.
Operators are therefore waging a merciless war for tenths of market share. Everyone took at least a cursory look at the Casino. Although Carrefour has its hands in the pot with the planned acquisition of Cora and Match in 2024, it admits that it has “expressed interest in some assets”. For his part, Dominique Schelcher , CEO of U, denied on X that there are plans for an alliance with Lidl… unless the latter agrees to share the alliance with another retailer, and the name of the Leclerc group.
However, the combination of the debt crisis (see Signa group) and the consumer crisis is leading to a small revolution in commercial distribution
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The article France: Casino group sells hypermarkets and supermarkets to pay off debts. comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/francia-gruppo-casino-vende-ipermercati-e-supermercati-per-far-fronte-ai-debiti/ on Sun, 03 Dec 2023 07:00:53 +0000.