France's Groupe Casino and smaller retailer Teract have said that Groupement Les Mousquetaires, owner of supermarket chain Intermarché, has joined their exclusive tie-up talks.
Under the planned deal, Groupement Les Mousquetaires and Casino are considering extending their purchasing alliances by two years until 2028.
They are also considering extending their agreements to the new entity to be formed between Casino Group and Teract, which would be controlled by Casino.
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Transfer Of Points Of Sale
The new entity could also transfer to Groupement Les Mousquetaires over several years and at market value, a number of points of sale from Casino France representing a minimum of €1.1 billion of turnover, the statement said.
This would enable Intermarché to expand its national network, while also enabling Casino to 'accelerate the geographical refocusing of Casino labels on the target and priority regions', Casino said in a statement.
'Groupement Les Mousquetaires could also become a minority shareholder in the new entity,' it added. 'In this context, InVivo and Groupement Les Mousquetaires are considering an investment of €300 million in the new entity.'
Led by Jean-Charles Naouri, Casino, which has around €3 billion of debt maturing between 2024 and 2025, said in March it was in exclusive talks to combine its French retail business with Teract, a company backed by billionaire Xavier Niel, seeking to reassure investors over its ability to generate cash and reduce high debt.
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News by Reuters, additional reporting by ESM – your source for the latest retail news. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
