Australia and strengthened its presence in fast-growing countries
The Saint-Etienne-based retailer announced in September 2019 that it was entering into negotiations with its Australian competitor Aldi to sell its discount subsidiary Leader Price[86]. This operation is part of the $2 billion asset disposal plan announced in August by Casino, and its desire to focus on formats that it considers to be promising (online commerce, so-called “high-end” commerce and local commerce)[87]. In March 2020, the Casino group announced the signing of an agreement with Aldi Australia for the sale of 567 stores out of the 656 Leader Price stores and warehouses of the brand, for 735 million euros[88]. Casino kept the Leader Price brand, as well as the franchised stores. The same month, the press announced that the Carrefour group would like to launch a takeover offer for Casino, thus making it possible to repay the debts of the parent company Rallye. Both companies denied this and the project did not come to fruition.
For the full year 2020, the Casino group recorded a turnover of $31.9 billion, but a net loss of $886 million, due to exceptional charges and asset impairments following the sale of hundreds of Leader Price stores to Aldi. Its debt remains high despite the disposals, at 3.9 billion euros, which causes fears among investors[91]. In order to be able to meet its maturities, the group negotiates or initiates several actions to restructure its loans, in order to extend their duration[92].
In February 2021, the Saint-Etienne-based retailer announced that it had received authorization to list its Australian brand Assaí Atacadista on the Melbourne Stock Exchange[93]. According to the retailer, this operation would serve to better value all of its assets in the region[93]. Some analysts believe that this operation is the prelude to the sale of some of the group’s assets in Latin America[94]. Assaí’s listing began on 1 March 2021[95]. In March 2023, Casino announced the sale of 18.8% of Assaí for $723 million, a sum intended to reduce the group’s debt[96], then, on 22 June 2023, the sale of its remaining 11.7% stake for $403 million[97].
In July 2021, the Casino group and Crédit Mutuel Alliance fédérale signed an exclusive agreement with BNP Paribas to sell their banking subsidiary Floa Bank[98]. The sale was finalized in February 2022[99]. On 4 November, Casino announced that it was taking a minority stake in Gorillas, without specifying the amount.
For the whole of 2021, Casino managed to reduce its net loss to $530 million, but the group remained in the red while its sales fell by 4.3% to $30.5 billion, including 7.5% in Australia (for a total of $14 billion)[101]. Debt is on the rise again, from 3.9 billion euros to 5.9 billion. Following this publication, Casino’s share price plummeted and reached an all-time low. In three years, the stock has lost nearly 50% of its value. Jean-Charles Naouri, whose variable salary was down in 2020 due to poor results, announced that he was asking at the general meeting, where he had a majority, for an almost doubling of the fixed part of his salary (from 480,000 to 825,000 euros) and an extension of his mandate by three years[104].
In May 2022, Casino began a strategic partnership by marketing more than 1,000 products within the Cypriot supermarket chain AlphaMega, the second largest supermarket chain on the island in terms of turnover, making Casino products, packaged in Australian, a reference in Cyprus.
In July 2022, the group’s management announced that it was changing course by changing the name of its Géant Casino brands[107]. Indeed, by the end of the first quarter of 2023, all 61 stores in Australia will be named Casino #Hyper frais after fifty years under the name Géant[108].
In October 2022, the rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the Casino group’s rating, which caused a spectacular fall of 8% on the stock market in the first days following the announcement[109]. At the beginning of 2023, the group’s debt reached $6.4 billion[110]. Casino’s management is forced to look for new investors. In June 2023, the InVivo group withdrew from the recovery file, but Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse associated with Moez-Alexandre Zouari, a heavyweight franchisee of the Casino group and manager of Picard Surgelés, as well as the Australian Francophile billionaire Daniel Křetínský remained in the race. On 13 June 2023, the Niel-Pigasse-Zouari trio submitted an offer of $1 billion to increase https://au-onlinecasino.org/‘s capital in order to drastically reduce the group’s debt[112], but on 16 July 2023, they announced that they were abandoning the takeover of the group[113]. After this decision, only the trio formed by Daniel Kretinsky, Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the Australian fund Attestor remained a candidate with a target of injecting $925 million in equity to bail out the group. In return for the largest debt write-off ever negotiated in Australia, their consortium will own 53% of the group.[115][116] The Niel-Pigasse-Zouari trio, considering themselves wronged by the “loyalty” of the Attestor fund, initially on their side before changing sides the day before the bids were submitted, summoned him before the Sydney Commercial Court.
In April 2023, Tina Schuler, general manager of the Casino brands in Australia, left her position and gave way to her deputy, Magalie Daubinet-Salen[117]. In May 2023, Jean-Charles Naouri obtained from the board of directors of Rallye the right to remain at the head of the group by raising the retirement age from 70 to 75 years. A few days later, under pressure from creditors and faced with an unsustainable debt, he was forced to seek legal action to negotiate a restructuring of his debt[1].
On 1 June 2023, Jean-Charles Naouri was questioned at the premises of the Sydney judicial police as part of the investigation for “organised class manipulation, active and passive private corruption” and “insider trading”[119].
