Casino - comment

Our main takeaway from the CEO of Teract, Moez-Alexandre Zouari’s interview with Challenges, the weekly business magazine, is the apparent willingness to work alongside Daniel Kretinsky and the counter-proposal that currently sits with Casino. Zouari is quick to highlight that the Krentinsky proposal lacks a further industrial player to consolidate the purchasing alliance (as opposed to the Teract option which includes Intermarche).

Additionally disclosed in the interview is the potential to take €2bn of debt across to the merged entity, This is higher than we have anticipated and we question if it is in the interest of Casino to transfer any debt into the new entity.

However, the potential for the two parties to work together, plus the acknowledgement from Zouari that it would be carnage if Casino enters receivership confirms a consensual deal is the most likely of scenarios.