Casino open to selling GPA stake, as Brazil retailer no longer strategic
Adds details and context in paragraphs 4-9
By Luciana Magalhaes
SAO PAULO, July 31 (Reuters) -French retailer Casino CASP.PA no longer considers Brazil's GPA PCAR3.SA a strategic holding and is open to selling its remaining 22.5% stake in the company, an executive at Casino's financial communications department said.
"Today, our stake in GPA is only an investment, like any other," Christopher Welton told Reuters in an interview, saying that Casino could decide to dispose of its GPA shares based on its assessment of what is best for the group.
The executive, however, added that no deal is imminent. He denied rumors that the French group had hired an investment bank to offer its shares in GPA to local and international investors.
Based on Wednesday's price, Casino's GPA holding is worth close to 300 million reais ($53 million), about half what market participants reckon the French group would be willing to accept for its stake, according to two people familiar with the matter.
After years of debt-fueled acquisitions, Casino recently restructured its operations to avert bankruptcy. An eventual decision to sell GPA shares would be part of this strategy, according to Welton.
In March, GPA completed a primary offering of new shares, in which Casino gave up its controlling stake in the firm as part of its strategic withdrawal from Latin America.
In 2023, Casino sold a residual equity stake in Brazilian retailer Assai ASAI3.SA and also agreed to sell Colombian food retailer Almacenes Exito IMI.CN to Group Calleja, a leading grocery chain in El Salvador.
The financial restructuring, completed in late March, also shifted control of Casino to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.
($1 = 5.6531 reais)
Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes; Editing by Gabriel Araujo, Brad Haynes, Alexandra Hudson
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