French retailers Auchan, Intermarche in buying alliance talks (updated)

Loews

05/12/2023 15:09

(Adds details, source from paragraph 5)
    By Dominique Vidalon
       PARIS, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Auchan and Intermarche said on
Tuesday they have entered talks to form a joint purchasing
alliance, a week after submitting a joint bid to buy the French
hypermarket and supermarket stores that debt-laden rival Casino
 CASP.PA  is seeking to offload.
    The long-term alliance would cover the purchase of food
products from national brands as well as the purchase of
non-food products, Auchan and Intermarche said in a joint
statement.
    Casino said last week it has received 'preliminary
indicative offers from several purchasers' for an unspecified
number of hypermarket and supermarkets it had put up for sale.
    Intermarche had already agreed to buy about 61 stores from
Casino in May. It has a call option, exercisable within three
years, for a second group of 72 stores.
    A source close to the matter told Reuters on Tuesday that at
this stage "most players on the French retail market", including
Leclerc, had expressed interest in the sale process. 
    Potential candidates for Casino's stores also include German
discount group Lidl.
    "The idea is to try to have something done in 2023," the
source said of the timetable for bids.
    Last week, Auchan Retail board member Serge Papin told BFM
Business that Auchan and Intermarche had submitted a joint bid
for all the stores Casino is looking to sell to raise cash.
    The sale of the hyper and supermarkets, if completed, would
sharply reduce Casino's size to some 8 billion euros in sales
from 33.6 billion euros in 2022, halving its market share in
France to around 3%, Barclays analyst Nicolas Champ estimates.  

 (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by GV De Clercq and
Alexander Smith)
 ((dominique.vidalon@thomsonreuters.com; +33149495432; Reuters
Messaging: dominique.vidalon.reuters.com@reuters.net))