Casino potential sale of Leader Price in France

All,

Sarria view: Remain positive on the Casino debt structure and the potential asset sales confirms Casino’s wish to de-lever and improve liquidity at Casino level.

Following press speculation in Les Echos, Casino released a statement confirming they are in talks with Aldi France for the sale of Leader Price subsidiary. This is on the back of their announcement at H1 2019, where they stated there would be an additional €2bn of asset sales over the coming 18 months.

Casino has mandated BNP Paribas with price talks in the €200-400m range. We would expect recovery in the upper end of this range.

Other likely assets for sale are the remaining equity stake in Mercialys, and the remaining Geant Hypermarket stores.

Les Echos has the news story https://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/conso-distribution/exclusif-casino-en-passe-de-vendre-leader-price-a-aldi-1132921