Rallye, the parent company of Casino, announced Monday the opening of a conciliation procedure with its creditors by the Paris Commercial Court, in order to advance on the renegotiation of its debt. The amicable discussions announced on April 25 having not succeeded, Rallye has "decided to request the opening of a conciliation procedure in order to benefit from a more protective legal framework to continue discussions" with creditors, which the commercial court accepted, according to a statement from the group.
This announcement does not directly concern the Casino distribution group, in financial difficulties, which gave it until May 23, 17:00, before deciding on the advisability of a conciliation procedure with its creditors.
Discussions on the table
Casino is indebted to the tune of 6.4 billion euros at the end of 2022 (including 4.5 billion on its France activity), to which are added more than three billion in debt for the parent company of the group, Rallye. The company, which employs more than 50,000 people in France and 200,000 worldwide under many brands, including Monoprix or Franprix, has been struggling for years to get out of debt, so far without success.
The group has been officially discussing since February a possible merger with the Teract group, which mainly has garden center brands (Jardiland, Gamm Vert), and whose majority shareholder is the agri-food giant InVivo, a union of 188 agricultural cooperatives. But another offer has emerged, led by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, already a 10% shareholder in Casino, and who proposed on April 24 to inject 750 million euros into the group via a reserved capital increase of more than one billion euros.
