French retailer Casino sells its Vietnamese activities

French Group Casino has sold its Big C Vietnam to Central Group from Thailand for one billion dollars, in an attempt to lower its overall debt.

It already sold its activities in Thailand

Big C Vietnam, founded in 1998, consists of 43 stores and 30 shopping centers, and managed a 586 million euro turnover in 2015. Late last year, Casino revealed it would sell plenty of divisions, to lower its debt. It not only sold Big C Vietnam, but also its retail activities in Thailand and several real estate properties in Latin America. These sales have now generated 4.2 billion euro for Casino. 

Central Group also bid for Casino’s activities in Thailand, but Thai mogul Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi acquired those in the end after paying 3.1 billion euro to acquire Casino’s 58.6 % stake in Big C Thailand.

Casino had to weather a storm recently because of Brazilian issues. Most of its turnover comes from Latin America, but the Brazilian recession has caused its turnover to drop and its profits to slide.