Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has tightened his grip on French retailer Casino, raising his stake to 6.88% of the capital and 5.17% of the voting rights, a regulatory announcement showed.
Casino CEO and controlling shareholder Jean-Charles Naouri are hunting for ways to ease the company's debts - and those of parent company Rallye - in part through asset sales.
VESA Equity Investment, controlled by Kretinsky and his junior partner Patrik Tkac, bought the additional Casino shares on 27 February on the market, stock market regulator AMF said in a statement.
Kretinsky first disclosed an investment in Casino in September 2019, saying VESA had built a stake of 4.6%, becoming Casino's second-largest shareholder after Naouri.
'Friendly' Investment
Kretinky and Naouri at the time said the investment was friendly, with Naouri saying he would propose to the Casino board of directors the appointment of a representative of VESA.
In January, VESA further lifted its stake in Casino to 5.6%.
Earlier this week, Kretinsky agreed to provide up to €233 million ($256 million) through his EP Investment vehicle to refund derivatives deals Casino's parent Rallye had sealed with financial institutions.
This was an important move because these derivatives were the only part of Rallye's debt that were not covered by a safeguard plan approved by the Paris Commercial Court on 28 February.
That plan gives Rallye about 10 years to pay back €2.9 billion of debt.
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
