The Saint-Etienne distribution group is refocusing on France and withdrawing from Brazil in order to get out of debt.
Casino has just sold 18.8% of Assai, its Brazilian nugget, for 732 million euros.
Already in November, he had separated from 10.4% of this brand selling food products in large quantities for 490 million euros.
Casino now only holds 11.7% of the capital and “
no longer controls the company
”.
Assai was the pearl of Casino in Brazil.
In this country which has suffered from hyperinflation in recent years, customers are turning to these warehouse stores which sell products wholesale, on pallets and for 15% less than in a traditional hypermarket.
They attract a clientele of individuals but also traders, who buy in very large quantities.
Such volumes of purchases make it possible to crush costs, and make Assai a particularly profitable brand.
Read also Casino: activity up in 2022 thanks to Latin America but difficult 4T in France
Casino still holds some assets in Latin America.
In addition to 11.7% of Assai, he still owns 40% of GPA, a listed company which includes the rest of Casino's Brazilian activities (the premium brand Pao de Açucar for example) as well as its Colombian activities, grouped under the name from Exito.
The distributor plans to split GPA and Exito soon as it had previously done for Assai.
The objective is to better value its Colombian activities on the stock market.
Eventually, all of Casino's activities in Latin America are intended to be sold.
The distributor's debt reached 6.4 billion euros at the end of 2022, up from the previous year precisely because of the increase in the debt of Assai, which had to finance its expansion last year.
Debt reduction is one of the group's priorities.
In 2024, it will have to face two repayment deadlines: 650 million in January and 510 million in March.