Casino - comment

Cnova reported another set of poor numbers this morning. Has Casino missed the boat in realising value for this asset? Cnova’s quarterly sales numbers are down, not just versus Covid impacted 2021, but Net sales of c. €450m is lower than Q1 ini 2018-2021 period. The number of items sold in Q1 was just over 10m which compares with over 12m in Q1 2018, 2019 and 2021. 

Cnova is transitioning the business to more of an intermediary provider, increasing their Marketplace GMV and growing the B2B initiatives and Octopia. But this transition is slow-moving, and given the shares trade at c.22x LTM EBITDA, the time for delivery is now.

Cnova is the first of Casino’s listed subsidiaries to report, with GPA reporting their sales numbers this evening (earnings will be released on 4th May) and Casino releasing their Q1 numbers on Friday at 7 am. Assai are not due to release their numbers until early May.