On 20 October 2023
On October 16th 2023, Groupe Casino announced that its Board of Directors approved on Friday, 13 October 2023 the execution of a pre-agreement (“Pre-Agreement”) with Grupo Calleja, which owns the leading grocery retailer group in El Salvador and operates under the Super Selectos brand for the sale of Groupe Casino’s total equity interest in Almacénes Éxito S.A. (“Éxito Group”), corresponding to 34.05 % of Éxito Group’s capital stock, in tender offers to be launched by the Buyer in Colombia and in the United States of America for the acquisition of 100% of the outstanding shares of Éxito Group (including shares represented by American Depositary Shares and Brazilian Depositary Receipts), subject to the acquisition of at least 51% of the shares (“Public Offer”).
Grupo Pão de Açucar (“GPA”), a Brazilian subsidiary of Casino, which holds 13.31% of Éxito Group’s shares is also party to the Pre-Agreement and agreed to sell its equity interest in the Public Offer.
The price to be offered in the Public Offer is US$ 1.175 billion for 100% of the outstanding shares, equivalent to 0.9053 USD per share, of which US$ 400 million (corresponding to EUR 380 million on this date) is for Groupe Casino’s direct equity interest and US$ 156 million (EUR 148 million) is for GPA’s equity interest. The offer price will be paid by the Buyer in cash.
The launching of the Public Offer is subject to the Financial Superintendency of Colombia’s approval and the necessary filings before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Public Offer is expected to close around year end.
CASE Corporate Finance (“CASE”), and its partners from MAP Alliance (Metis Advisors and Atlantico Capital), acted as joint financial advisers to Groupe Casino and GPA with respect to this contemplated transaction.
Highlights
⦁ CASE expertise in the Consumers and Retail sectors, strengthened by the recent hiring of Guillaume Jeantet as Senior Advisor.
⦁ CASE ability to advise French clients in their transaction in Latin America leveraging the strong partnership with MAP Alliance partners.
⦁ This contemplated transaction would become the third M&A transaction between France and Latin America advised by CASE over the past 4 years.
⦁ CASE understanding of listed transactions.
