Strengthen online commerce, develop small stores and continue to reduce debt: the French distributor Casino explained on Thursday that it wanted to continue improving its financial situation in 2021, after a very special year 2020.
Unlike Carrefour, Casino will not propose during its general meeting to pay a dividend to its shareholders for 2020, "
given the priority given to the debt reduction plan
".
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The group with multiple brands (Casino, Géant, Franprix, Monoprix, Naturalia, Vival) has yet announced a sharp increase in annual sales at number of comparable stores (+ 8% to 31.9 billion euros, a level roughly in line with analysts' expectations polled by Bloomberg and Factset).
The previous year, its turnover had been 34.6 billion euros, but with a larger store base.
The group was also penalized by hyperinflation and a negative trend in exchange rates, particularly in Latin America.
The group's net debt fell only slightly in 2020, to 3.9 billion euros at the end of December against 4.1 billion a year earlier.
Analysts from the firm AlphaValue stressed in a note Thursday that this level of debt "
remained high enough to destabilize investors
."
The group from Saint-Étienne, which has nearly 70,000 employees in France and 220,000 worldwide, also reduced its net loss by 886 million euros, after 1.4 billion in 2019.
If the group was still in the red in 2020, it is mainly due to “
exceptional accounting charges in the context of the transformation of the group
”, and asset write-downs following the sale of Leader Price to Aldi in November, he said.
The latter, which enabled it to collect 648 million euros, is part of its policy of disposing of “
non-strategic assets
” aimed at reducing its debt.
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Casino has sold 2.8 billion euros in assets since July 2018 and retains its disposal target of 4.5 billion euros, but has not specified when.
Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, it was set for March 2021, but the group had indicated last October not to "
confirm it
".
During a conference call with financial analysts, the group's boss Jean-Charles Naouri, said he was "
confident
" in the ability to achieve these disposals, his assets are now "
all profitable or very profitable
."
AlphaValue observes that Casino published a gross operating surplus (EBITDA) well above analysts' expectations.
The group also claims current operating income (ROC), a key distribution index, of 1.43 billion euros (1.3 billion in 2019).
"
We have really cleaned up the situation and are well armed to start again strongly in growth
", declared Thursday morning the financial director of the company David Lubek.
Casino expects for 2021 on a "
clear improvement
" in profitability, according to its
press
release.
It also intends to open 300 stores this year, especially in urban, peri-urban and rural proximity.
It also intends to "
accelerate on e-commerce
" food, "
on structurally profitable models
".
He mentions in particular the deployment of “
click and collect
” and home delivery solutions, “
the extension of the partnership with Amazon to Lyon and Bordeaux in addition to Paris and Nice
”, and the “
ramp-up
” of the warehouse. launched in the Paris region and "
automated by technology
" from the British Ocado.
The Casino share price was almost stable Thursday shortly after 2:00 p.m. (+ 0.04% to 28.01 euros), in a market moving around equilibrium (CAC 40: + 0.06%).