Like a descent into hell... The share of the Casino group (Casino, Monoprix, Franprix, Naturalia, etc.) fell 9.43%, to 5.05 euros, Thursday, at the close of the Paris Stock Exchange, touching a new historical low, after the placement in custody of its CEO Jean-Charles Naouri, as part of an investigation targeting the brand for price manipulation. Since the beginning of the year, Casino shares have fallen by 48.31%.
This police custody is part of an investigation targeting Casino since February 5, 2020 of the facts of "manipulation of organized prices, active and passive private corruption" and "insider trading committed during 2018 and 2019", had indicated in March the National Financial Prosecutor's Office. The investigation follows a report from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). In May 2022, AMF investigators visited the group's headquarters and Jean-Charles Naouri's home.
This fall in the stock market and the custody come at a time when the group must renegotiate its debt with its creditors to ensure its future, after entering Friday in conciliation procedure. This amicable procedure, decided by the Paris Commercial Court, should allow the company, indebted to the tune of 6.4 billion euros at the end of 2022, to conclude an agreement with its creditors for a potential restructuring of its debt.
More than 200,000 jobs worldwide
Casino employs more than 50,000 people in France and 200,000 worldwide under many brands including Monoprix, Franprix or Pao de Acucar in Brazil. In France, it is powerful in Île-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Rhône-Alpes.
Casino arouses covetousness, on the part of billionaire Daniel Kretinsky as well as the distribution group Teract, whose majority shareholder is the agri-food giant InVivo. The first, already a 10% shareholder in Casino, proposed on April 24 to inject 750 million euros into the group via a capital increase of more than one billion euros.
InVivo, mainly present today in the garden center sector (Gamm Vert, Jardiland, Boulangeries Louise...) entered into discussions several months ago with Casino to integrate the French activity of the distributor. Teract's CEO, Moez-Alexandre Zouari, reached out to Daniel Kretinsky and called for work together at the distributor's bedside.
Naouri's fate at stake
These desires could in any case result in the loss of control of Casino by Jean-Charles Naouri, first shareholder since 1992 and CEO since 2005. Daniel Kretinsky, however, said in an interview with Le Point that the historic leader "could retain an eminent place" within the group if his operation is completed.
For his part, Jean-Charles Naouri recently amended the statutes of Rallye, the company through which he controls Casino, to raise the age limit for his presidency from 75 to 78.