French retailer Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA agreed to sell Vietnam’s Big C grocery chain to Central Group at an enterprise value of €1 billion ($1.1 billion), extending an Asian divestment programme aimed at reducing its debt.
The proceeds to be received are €920 million, the St Etienne, France-based company said in a recent statement. Casino said that the disposal will bring the total of its divestments to €4.2 billion.
The deal follows Casino’s agreement earlier this year to sell control of Thai supermarket chain Big C Supercenter Pcl to billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi’s TCC Holding Co. for €3.1 billion. Casino is selling assets in Asia and Latin America to cut borrowings amid an attack from short-seller Carson Block.
Among Block’s criticisms is that the retailer has a "dangerously" high debt burden – an assertion that the company denies. Standard & Poor’s cut Casino’s credit rating to junk in March.
Rising retail sales and booming foreign investment are helping the Vietnamese economy expand. Achieving the government’s growth forecast of approximately 6.7 per cent this year would make the South-East Asian nation one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. Consumer-product companies including Dutch brewer Heineken NV and Dove-soap-maker Unilever have experienced strong growth in the country over the past year.
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