Before leaving his position as CEO of the distributor Casino, Jean-Charles Naouri expressed his satisfaction after the agreement reached with the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his allies on the rescue of the group.
“I put all my energy” so that Casino, whose “financial situation was compromised two or three months ago, is no longer in this position. I am proud of myself. It was not won, “he said in an interview with Le Point magazine posted Wednesday, August 2 in the evening.
“My point of honor is to ensure that Casino (…) is saved”, he says, adding that he has spared no effort to ensure that the group is not “broken into pieces, after a bath of blood “.
Announced on July 28, the financial restructuring agreement in principle concluded between the distributor Casino, its buyers the billionaires Daniel Kretinsky (indirect shareholder of Le Monde), Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the Attestor fund, and its key creditors is “a legal promise strong, ”says Mr. Naouri. He believes that with this agreement “the assets of the group, the stores and the teams are not affected”. “I’m happy with it and I think I’ve done my duty,” he said.
A debt of 6.4 billion euros
Strangled by a debt of 6.4 billion euros, Casino has taken a major step in its rescue by signing an agreement in principle, which has yet to be endorsed and finalized. “We have had intense discussions with the creditors”, and “even if there is still a lot of work to do, we can say that the mission is largely accomplished”, estimates the founder and majority shareholder of the Casino group, of which he will not hold more than 0.15% through the parent company, Rallye, itself in conciliation proceedings with its creditors.
The billionaire duo Kretinsky-Ladreit de Lacharrière found themselves alone in the running in mid-July after their competitors, the trio Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari, gave up their takeover offer.
Jean-Charles Naouri was pleased that Casino had initially received two offers, enough to “create a dynamic of competition and you necessarily have an offer at the end”, he said. “I continue to think that Casino remains one of the finest retail groups in France” and is “made up of excellent assets”, he said.
“Pack” attack
In this interview, Jean-Charles Naouri dates the beginning of Casino’s decline to December 2015, when the activist fund Muddy Waters, founded by Carson Block, published a very critical report on the management of Casino. The title Casino had immediately fallen sharply on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CEO deplores an attack which then takes place “in a pack” and “simultaneously”, carried out in total by “seventeen funds based on five continents” – against a group which had had the support of twenty-one banks, “in majority of foreign banks” – and in the face of which “the French authorities are powerless”.
“There should be national laws protecting French companies allowing them to defend themselves against such attacks, in particular by obliging funds to answer legitimate questions,” Naouri said. “Somehow these funds have gained by financially suffocating the group,” he laments.