Groupe Casino sells real estate to reduce debts

In order to further reduce its debts, French retail group Casino is selling six Géant hypermarkets and quite some real estate.

Objective reached

The group has reached an agreement with competitor E.Leclerc to sell six Géant hypermarkets for a total of 100.5 million euros. The six are structurally loss-making stores, accounting for a turnover of 150 million euros and a total operational loss of 8 million. The sale should contribute to the profitability of Casino’s retail activities in France.

Moreover, the property of 26 stores is sold to Fortress Investment Group: thirteen Géant Casino stores, three Casino hypermarkets and ten Casino supermarkets, totalling 31.8 million euros in rental income. This transaction pushes the group to its objective of selling 1.5 billion euros in non-strategic assets. In combination with the group’s announcement that 2018 was the best year in some time for its French activities, this was quite a good week for the group.