PARIS (Reuters) -French supermarket group Casino, which is owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, said its majority shareholder was starting talks with creditors to restructure 1.4 billion euros
Kretinsky Consortium Proposes 300M Euro Injection for Casino
By Dominique Vidalon
PARIS (Reuters) -French supermarket group Casino, which is owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, said on Monday it was gearing up for its second debt restructuring in less than two years as it extended a revival plan to 2030.
Majority shareholder France Retail Holdings (FRH) was starting talks with creditors to restructure 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion) of debt maturing in March 2027, the group said.
FRH was offering to guarantee a capital increase of 300 million euros, provided a deal with creditors can be reached.
The plan, which it aims to complete by the end of the second quarter of 2026 - would be Casino's second debt restructuring in less than two years if approved by creditors.
The first restructuring, which helped the struggling retailer avoid bankruptcy, culminated in a March 2024 takeover by a consortium led by Kretinsky.
Casino is seeking to reduce the nominal value of the 1.4 billion euro loan to 800 million euros and cut the interest rate on the loan to 6% from 9%.
FRH would see its stake in Casino increase to around 68% from around 40%, assuming no other shareholder participates in the capital increase.
France's seventh-largest supermarket group by market share was brought to the verge of default in 2023 after years of debt-fuelled acquisitions under previous owner Jean-Charles Naouri and a declining market share.
Under its new ownership, the group has been attempting a turnaround through job cuts, disposals of large loss-making stores and a refocus on inner-city convenience stores such as Monoprix and Franprix.
Casino on Monday announced new targets for a recovery plan it has now extended to 2030.
It said it will invest 1.7 billion euros in net capital expenditure between 2025 and 2030 to achieve a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of 15.8 billion euros by 2030 and eyed additional savings of more than 150 million euros over 2029-30.
($1 = 0.8681 euros)
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Kirsten Donovan)
