The trio Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Moez-Alexandre Zouari announced on Sunday that they were abandoning their offer to take over the distributor Casino, which is awash in debt, leaving only Daniel Kretinsky’s offer in the running, supported by Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière. 3F, the holding company through which the trio intended to take over Casino, wrote in a press release that it “refuses to participate in a biased process, the company having obviously already chosen its buyer”. She claims not to have “received the requested information” on several points of Casino’s financial situation.
Casino must currently renegotiate its crushing debt, announced at 6.4 billion euros at the end of 2022. It must also raise at least 900 million euros in equity. Camp 3F planned to inject the same amount into the group. Half of this contribution would have been in the form of equity – also contributed by investment funds creditors of Casino, Attestor, Davidson Kempner and Farallon Capital, according to the terms of the offer published by Casino. And, for the other half, in the form of a debt issue.
But the Attestor group “participated in a competing bid before the tenders were submitted” on Friday without ever saying so and “while continuing to participate in 3F meetings”, denounces the press release on Sunday. The Kretinsky-Ladreit de Lacharrière duo, now the only bid in the running, plans to inject 1.35 billion euros in equity, including more than 900 million euros from themselves, at a rate of 750 million for the Czech billionaire and 150 for the Frenchman.