creditors and shareholders have until January 11 to vote

The judicial administrators at the bedside of the beleaguered distributor Casino have summoned shareholders and creditors “to decide” by January 11 “on the draft accelerated safeguard plans which will be submitted to them”, according to a press release from Casino this Thursday.

In detail, creditors in particular will be able to vote “electronically between December 21, 2023 and January 10, 2024”, with votes counted on January 11. Shareholders are invited to vote “in person” on January 11, specifies Casino in its press release.

The distributor still managed for a few months by Jean-Charles Naouri entered end of October under the so-called accelerated safeguard procedure in order to “implement” the restructuring of its debt, in continuation of an agreement with its creditors and candidates for its takeover at the end of July.

The accelerated backup period was extended on December 11 until February 25 by the Paris Commercial Court.

This agreement provides, in addition to the restructuring of an unsustainable debt, a change in shareholding with, by March/April 2024, a takeover by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, the French Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the British Attestor fund.

Auchan and Les Mousquetaires in “exclusive negotiations”

But commercial performance did not improve much and the group had to lower its financial ambitions several times, before saying it was ready to sell stores if competitors were interested.

Earlier this week, food distribution brands Auchan and Les Mousquetaires/Intermarché entered into “exclusive negotiations” with their competitor in great financial difficulty Casino for the purchase of “almost the entire scope of hypermarkets and supermarkets” of this group, according to press releases.

According to Casino, this represents “313 stores” for which “all employees of the transferred stores would be taken over” by the Mousquetaires/Intermarché and Auchan group.

The operation, “subordinate” to the ongoing financial restructuring of Casino, “could take place before the end of the first quarter of 2024”, specifies the group.

Mobilization of employees Friday and Saturday

“Certain real estate assets could also be part of the scope of the operation”, further indicates Casino, according to which the money generated by the operation would make it possible to “support the envisaged financial restructuring, the investment in the maintained scope, and the social support for the employees concerned.

“This announcement inspires disgust in me on the part of Casino management who does not respect us to the end,” lamented Jean Pastor (CGT), spokesperson for the inter-union (FO, CGT, CFDT, UNSA , CFE-CGC).

To maintain the pressure, the inter-union called for a national mobilization in the Casino warehouses on Friday and in the stores on Saturday.