Casino supermarkets in crisis, a consortium for the rescue: there is Niel with a 1.1 billion plan

The telecommunications billionaire Xavier Niel together with two partners (the banker Matthieu Pigasse and the retail entrepreneur Moez-Alexandre Zouari) unveiled a 1.1 billion euro plan to bail out French retail group Casino Guichard-Perrachon.

Casino has received a preliminary letter of intent which aims to increase the group’s capital up to 1.1 billion euros, of which up to 300 million euros invested directly by the three entrepreneurs. The remainder of the funds will come from new partners and current creditors who wish to reinvest in the business. “This proposal would be accompanied, to the extent necessary, by an adjustment of the Casino’s existing debt to its capabilities and the preservation of its growth potential,” says Niel.

Casino is currently in conciliation proceedings for a period of four months to renegotiate the debt of 6.4 billion euros and around 3 billion for the parent Rallye. The procedure should make it possible to conclude an agreement with creditors with a view to debt restructuring.

According to prospective investors, the “proposal would be accompanied, to the extent necessary, by an adjustment of Casino’s existing debt to its capabilities and the preservation of its growth potential”. The chain could also reject the proposal, but the news still led to a jump of more than 20% of the Casino shares.

Even the Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky, a shareholder with 10% of the supermarkets very present in Paris and in the South-East of France, is in the game: he has proposed to lead an alternative consortium that will always inject 1.1 billion in capital, provided that the unsecured debt (3.6 billion) is reduced by converting it into shares.