The Casino group, which has a large presence in the Alpes Maritimes, announced on Friday that it will sell a significant number of its stores to Intermarché, France’s third largest supermarket chain.

Two days after suspending trade on the stock market, the Casino group, which owns the brands Monoprix, Leaderprice, and Spar among others, announced that it had entered into conciliation proceedings to negotiate with its creditors. At the same time, Casino will sell 100 of its stores to the Mousquetaires group (Intermarché), with which it joined forces in 2021.

The deal is set to bring in €1.15 billion in turnover.

The sale will affect more than a hundred hypermarchés, supermarkets and convenience stores “in areas considered non-priority”, the group’s financial director David Lubek told a press briefing, according to Ouest-France.

The core of Casino’s activity is located in the Ile-de-France, the Rhône-Alpes and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.

The deal is expected to strengthen Intermarchés’ presence in the west at a lower cost by revitalising stores that were losing momentum.

Intermarché has reportedly “undertaken to acquire an additional volume of stores representing 500 million euros in turnover”, if Casino so requests.

A long-running French favourite

The Casino Group was founded in 1898 by Geoffroy Guichard and has spearheaded many innovations, including the first distributor’s brand in 1901, the first supermarket to display a sell-by date on consumer products in 1959, and even the first self-service store in Nice in 1957.

Sign up for the Monaco Life newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.