The distributor Casino achieved sales 10% lower in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period of 2020, which had been favorable to supermarkets, and announced Thursday a net loss of 35 million euros against 340 million a year earlier .
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Casino sales amounted to 14.48 billion euros over the period, in line with the expectations of analysts polled by Bloomberg.
The second quarter of 2020, with the closure of restaurants in several countries to fight against the spread of Covid-19, had been largely favorable to supermarkets.
Financial director David Lubek assured during a telephone press point to see "
an improvement in July
" with the normalization of the health situation, but the company is particularly present in the Paris region, where the trade situation remains delicate due to the persistent absence of the tourist clientele.
353 new stores over the half-year
Casino emphasizes “
the dynamic of improving profitability in all the brands
” that it owns, Géant, Monoprix, Franprix, Naturalia, Vival, as well as the e-merchant CDiscount. The company opened 353 stores over the first half of the year, especially local stores, and intends to continue this momentum in the second half of the year, "
which will gradually be seen in our turnover
", according to David Lubek.
At the same time, it is continuing its disposal policy with a target of 4.5 billion euros for disposal "
as quickly as possible
". "
We no longer have debt maturities before 2024,
" explained the group's chief financial officer on this point. "
We will go as quickly as possible but the objective is not to constrain us artificially by a deadline
".
On Tuesday, BNP Paribas signed an agreement for the acquisition of the online bank Floa (formerly Banque Casino), specializing in innovative payments, from Casino and Crédit Mutuel. This agreement should bring in 179 million euros to the distributor, 129 in sale prices and 50 "in
particular related to the renewal of commercial agreements between Cdiscount, the Casino and Floa brands,
" he said on Thursday. Since July 2018, "
the total amount of signed or secured sales has stood at 3.1 billion euros,
" Casino also indicates.
In mid-April, the group announced that it was “
actively
”
studying “
potential fundraising
” for its subsidiaries Cdiscount and GreenYellow in order to accelerate their growth. Cnova, the parent company of CDiscount based in the Netherlands, had specified that it was considering a capital increase of around 300 million euros. Casino did not make an announcement on this point Thursday, its financial director specifying that the group "will
announce the horizon when it has sufficient visibility
".
