The Casino group published on Wednesday a spectacular net loss of 5.7 billion euros in 2023, attributable in particular to the great difficulties of its hypermarkets and supermarkets which it has since sold largely to competitors.
The group, also weighed down by a loss of value of its Monoprix and Franprix stores, had its rescue plan validated at the start of the week by the Paris commercial court which provides for a crushing of its enormous debt and the takeover of the coming weeks of buyers led by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.
Casino indicates that it has sold 1.4 billion euros of assets in 2023, including the share still held in the Brazilian brand Assai, and 1.7 billion since the start of 2024, including 288 stores to its competitors Intermarché, Auchan and Carrefour .
The group published a turnover (excluding tax) of just under 9 billion euros for the year, down 4.7%.
In 2022, its net loss was 316 million euros.
“Outdated” financial perspectives
Soon changing hands, Casino still announces that
“given the sale process”
of the large-scale stores, its financial prospects
“are obsolete”
.
But Casino is not
“publishing new 2024 outlook”
.
The group, which employed 50,000 people in France at the end of 2022 under well-known brands such as Casino, Franprix or Monoprix, had to enter accelerated safeguarding at the end of October because it could no longer meet its debt maturities.
The restructuring of Casino's debt plans to wipe out around 5 billion euros of debts, and is made possible by the provision of new money to the tune of 1.2 billion euros, including more than 900 million by a consortium buyers including billionaires Daniel Kretinsky and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière as well as the Attestor investment fund.
“In the absence of suspensive appeal, it is envisaged that all of the operations planned by the financial restructuring will be carried out on March 27, 2024
,” the group indicated in a press release on Monday, recalling the possibility for administrators and legal representatives as well as that for the CSE of Distribution Casino France, the staff representative and the public prosecutor to appeal.
Under the terms of the capital increases, the distributor's current shareholders, starting with the first of them Jean-Charles Naouri, will be very massively diluted.
The future of the man who has been CEO of this former retail flagship since 2005 is not known.