2023-05-26 18:19:00
Should we still bet on Casino? The question deserves to be asked, because times are tough for the band. The distributor’s turnover in France fell by 2.3% in the first quarter over one year despite inflation of some 15% in the food sector. And its market share fell to 6.1%. The fault with financial difficulties which did not allow him to compress his margins and to enter the price war with his competitors. So much so that we come to wonder if Casino will not be the first victim of inflation in the French retail landscape.
This Friday, the group also announced its entry into a conciliation procedure with its creditors for a period of four months, possibly extendable by one month, to renegotiate its large debt. Casino, which employs 200,000 people worldwide, including 50,000 in France under many brands (including Monoprix, Franprix or Naturalia), accumulated a debt of 6.4 billion euros at the end of 2022, including 4.5 billion euros on its activity in France.
Intermarché shows its cards
In the wake of this announcement, Casino formalized the sale of part of its store network to the Les Mousquetaires group (Intermarché, Netto, etc.). The latter had however joined in April the discussions between the Saint-Etienne group of Jean-Charles Naouri and Teract, the distribution subsidiary of the InVivo cooperative of which Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari, its managing director, are minority shareholders. .
In concrete terms, the agreement provides for the sale to Intermarché of points of sale representing 1.15 billion in turnover in two waves: 600 million euros by the end of the year and 550 million euros in the following months and within a maximum period of three years. The Les Mousquetaires group has also undertaken to “acquire from the Casino group, if the latter so requests, an additional volume of stores of 500 million euros in turnover including tax”, specified the empire of Jean-Charles Naouri in a press release.
“This would represent between 120 and 180 stores in total”, specifies a union source from the Casino group. “For Intermarché, it is a question of completing its national network, indicated on Classic Radio Thierry Cotillard, president of the Mousquetaires group. And for Casino to refocus on its priority areas. Namely Île-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Elsewhere, between 15 and 20 points of sale would change flag in each region to hoist the colors of Intermarché or Netto, the group’s hard discount brand.
“When the stores are renovated and with the change of brand, it is estimated that Les Mousquetaires will gain 1.5 points of market share”, analyzes Franck Rosenthal, retail expert. What come to follow the number 2 of the sector, Carrefour. And the specialist in the sector to add: “This is a first step in the Casino soap opera and it is final. No one will be able to go back on it regardless of the outcome of the group’s debt round. »
Bad deal for employees
The list of stores concerned not having been revealed, the employees of the Casino group are themselves in the most total vagueness. “We are living through a very hard period and the mental state of the employees worries me”, is moved by a representative of the employees. Because for those who will change brands, there will be more than a change of name. “Casino is an integrated group with internal agreements while Intermarché is a group of independents, analyzes Ali Eloued, CGT union representative of the Casino group. Tomorrow, we will have to go renegotiate the social gains, brand by brand, with the Intermarché franchise owners. »
Those who will remain in the Naouri empire do not have a clear horizon either, even if the agreement signed between Casino and the Les Mousquetaires group offers some prospects. The protocol thus provides for the extension until 2028 of the joint purchasing centers for food, non-food and so-called non-market purchases, the creation of a new one for private label food products and an “agreement on supply from the Marée and Butchery sectors of the Groupement Les Mousquetaires”. “It shows the entire financial community that there is a future for Casino on this horizon,” underlines Franck Rosenthal.
All options are on the table
It now remains to know the future of the Casino group, with regard to the restructuring of its imposing debt because “if the agreement concluded with Intermarché shows encouraging signs to creditors, it does not solve the problem”, adds Franck Rosenthal.
“This protocol is compatible with the ongoing discussions with Teract on the industrial project initiated a few months ago, as well as with all additional capital operations likely to strengthen the group’s equity,” Casino said in a press release. “It does not call into question the participation of Intermarché in a round table”, wants to believe one of the many players in this sprawling file.
All the options are however on the table even if the tongues are not loosened easily. Either a gradual dismantling of the group with the sale of nuggets of the group that are Franprix, Monoprix, Cdiscount. Part of the Giants had already been sold to Leclerc or Système U. Either an agreement with Teract where everyone, InVivo, Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse, Moez-Alexandre Zouari and Casino, finds their place, with or without Intermarché . Either a takeover by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, already a 10% shareholder of the Casino group, and who proposed in an interview with Le Point at the beginning of the month a capital increase of 1.1 billion euros. Or even an alliance between Teract and Daniel Kretinsky but which would take even longer to materialize.
“There is also another scenario: it is that someone else comes into the game”, adds Franck Rosenthal, before recalling the aborted discussions in recent years between the empire of Jean-Charles Naouri and the group Carrefour led by Alexandre Bompard. And the retail expert concludes: “Today, the situation is no longer the same, Carrefour has raised the bar in France and Casino is rather weakened and looking for solutions. “The games are not yet made.
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