Obatala-Photography / stock.adobe.com
The 25 brands are part of a wave of 288 hypermarkets and supermarkets whose sale Casino announced in late January to Auchan and Intermarche.
Distributor Casino, in the grip of serious financial difficulties, announced on Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Carrefour to sell 25 supermarkets and hypermarkets. “After consultation with the relevant staff representative bodies, the transfer will be completed on April 30, 2024”, according to a press release from the casino group, which did not list the stores involved. The 25 brands are part of a wave of 288 hypermarkets and supermarkets whose sale Casino announced in late January to Auchan and Intermarche.
On the same day, Carrefour announced that it had entered “Special Negotiations” With Intermarche to buy back part of the store network sold by the casino to avoid competition issues. While the liquidation of the casino group has caused fear among its approximately 50,000 employees, “Carrefour has made similar social commitments to employees assigned to relocated stores and service stations as the Les Mouscateers group (owner of Intermarche, editor’s note)”, suggests in a press release published by the Saint-Etienne-based distributor on Thursday. The Paris Commercial Court is due to examine the casino group’s draft accelerated safeguard plan on Monday.
great difficulties
Amidst the crunch, the distributor signed an agreement in July to restructure its debt and change shareholders by March-April 2024. They are Czech billionaire Daniel Kretynsky, Frenchman Marc Ledret de Lechrier and British fund assessor. Orders must be taken on this date. Casino clarified on Thursday that it is conditional on the sale of 25 stores to Carrefour “All General Authorizations”And especially from them “competent competition authorities”. In late December, the Competition Authority forced Intermarch to sell 3 of the 61 stores acquired from the casino to its rivals as part of the first wave of store sales.
