Casino - using Vindemia proceeds to buy back 2022 & 2023 bonds

All,

The repurchase of short-dated maturities by Casino is in line with their guidance. The main focus of their capital market effort for 2021/22 will be the refinancing of the 2023 bonds, as the €2bn RCF maturity will extend by 1yr to October 2023, with refinancing of the January 2023 bonds. Post this transaction, the maturity profile of bonds are c. €600m May -21, €386m Jun-22 and €625m Jan-23. This is €1.6bn of maturities in the next 2.5yrs, with RCF and cash facilities of €3.2bn. Our expectation is they will refinance some of these bonds and have to refinance the Jan-23 to meet the covenant to allow the RCF to be extended.

We continue to examine the Casino structure and the relative value of the 2024 bonds versus the Quatrim bonds.

Last night, Casino confirmed that they had purchased €65.7m and €93.8m respectively of the 2022 and 2023 bonds using money from the escrow account from proceeds from the sale of the Vindemia (Indian Ocean) business. These bonds both trade at a discount to par, but at par they would have cost €159.5m versus €186m held in the escrow account. We have asked what is the balance of cash held in the escrow account.

Happy to discuss.

Tomás