Casino Shareholders Creditors Clear Accelerated Protection Plan

PARIS, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Casino shareholders and creditors on Thursday gave the green light to a plan led by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky to bail out the debt-ridden French retailer.

Sixteen out of 17 classes the shareholder and creditors were divided into to cast their votes - electronically and at a meeting held on Thursday - approved a draft protection procedure Casino entered into in October, Casino said in a statement on Friday.

The procedure allows its future leadership to finalise a deal to restructure the group's debt and revive its business,

In December 2023, it was extended by two months to Feb. 25.

Casino shareholders (class 7) voted 98.87% in favour of the procedure, while it enjoyed far less success among EMTN, high yield and treasury bonds creditors (class 3), who voted 68.55% in favour, and creditors holding perpetual subordinated notes (class 6) of whom 75.62% voiced their approval.

A new leadership team formed around Kretinsky is set later this year to take control of France's seventh-largest supermarket group by market share, which was brought to the verge of default after years of debt-fuelled acquisitions and recent losses in market share to rivals.

Current shareholders will be massively diluted under a restructuring deal which will end the 30-year reign of 74-year-old Jean-Charles Naouri, who controls Casino through his listed holding company Rallye.

Kretinsky's consortium will own and control 53.7% of Casino's share capital under the deal, which calls for 1.2 billion euros of new money to be injected into Casino, as well as a 6.1 billion euro reduction of Casino's debt. (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Piotr Lipinski; Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Kim Coghill)

If you adored this article and you also would like to get more info concerning top online casinos please visit our web site.