PARIS (Reuters) -French supermarket group Casino, which is owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, said its majority shareholder was starting talks with creditors to restructure 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion) of debt.
It was also offering to guarantee a capital increase of 300 million euros to fund its plan for a recovery by 2030.
The plan, if approved by creditors, would be Casino’s second debt restructuring in less than two years.
The first restructuring, which helped the struggling retailer avoid bankruptcy, culminated in a March 2024 takeover by a consortium led by Kretinsky.
Casino, France’s seventh-largest supermarket group by market share, was brought to the verge of default in 2023 after years of debt-fuelled acquisitions and a declining market share.
Under its new ownership, the group has been attempting a turnaround through job cuts, disposals of large loss-making stores and a refocus on inner-city convenience stores such as Monoprix and Franprix. ($1 = 0.8681 euros)
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
