French supermarket chain Casino wants to offload its discount chain Leader Price and is now supposedly close to a deal with Aldi.
750 million euros
Debt-laden French retailer Casino has agreed to sell 567 Leader Price stores in France, plus three warehouses, to German discount rival Aldi in a deal with an enterprise value of 735 million euros (670.6 million pounds), it said on Friday. The sale of discount chain Leader Price marks the latest in a series of disposals by Casino as part of plans to cut debt and improve its financial. PARIS (Reuters) — Debt-laden French retailer Casino has agreed to sell 567 Leader Price stores in France, plus three warehouses, to German discount rival Aldi in a deal with an enterprise.
Leader Price Casino Aldi Corporate Headquarters
According to Reuters, an agreement between Casino and Aldi is imminent: both parties supposedly more or less agree on a 750 million euro value for the discount chain, but the deal is not signed yet. Neither Aldi nor Casino wished to respond to the article.
Leader Price Casino Aldis
Already in September last year, Casino confirmed rumours that the French retailer was conducting exclusive negotiations with Aldi to sell Leader Price. At the time, there was talk of a takeover price of “well over 400 million euros”. The French chain is burdened by heavy debt and is trying to tackle that with a divestment plan worth 4.5 billion euros. The sale of Leader Price is part of that downsizing.
Casino Vend Leader Price A Aldi
On its own French market, Casino has suffered greatly from the fierce competition including from E.Leclerc and discounters Aldi and Lidl. Online players like Amazon also present a big challenge.
