Billionaire Xavier Niel and two partners are working on a plan to rescue Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA after talks between the French retailer and Teract SA collapsed.
Niel, retail entrepreneur Moez-Alexandre Zouari and banker Matthieu Pigasse are working to boost Casino’s “equity and to the extent necessary, adapt its existing debt to its current capacities and preserve its growth potential,” the trio said Thursday.
Their announcement follows the end of exclusive discussions between Casino and Teract, whose shareholders include the three investors and French agricultural firm InVivo.
Those talks, first reported by Bloomberg News in February, unraveled after Casino began court-supervised negotiations with its creditors to seek to lower its indebtedness — a process that can last several months and create uncertainty for potential partners.
What’s more, Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky has since offered to inject fresh capital into the ailing grocer and take a controlling stake. The moves mark the latest attempts to bolster the balance sheet at Casino, which has struggled to reduce debt levels despite billions of euros in asset sales.
Read More: Casino Begins Creditor Talks to Clear Way for Investment
Kretinsky’s plan to inject €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) in the company is conditional on the amount of debt being reduced substantially. The proposal envisions leaving the secured creditors unimpaired while offering debt buybacks at deep discounts and some debt for equity conversions for unsecured creditors, Bloomberg reported earlier.
As part of its effort to cut debt, Casino has also agreed to sell stores with about €1.6 billion in annual sales to retailer Groupement Les Mousquetaires, which runs the Intermarche supermarket chain.
Read more: Casino Guichard Lenders Engage Advisers Ahead of Debt Talks
--With assistance from Jenny Che and Julien Ponthus.
Author: Angelina Rascouet, Albertina Torsoli and Irene García Pérez
