Casino Group plans to sell Big C Vietnam

Groupe Casino SA has agreed to sell its stake in Thai hypermarket operator Big C Supercenter PLC for EUR3.1 billion ($3.46 billion) to a Thai billionaire, marking. Big C.Supercenter Public Company Limited operates supermarkets and discount stores. The Company retails wide range of food, beverages, sweets, health and beauty, household, electronics, and baby. Since 17 March 2020, Casino Group’s 220,000 employees in France, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina and the Indian Ocean have rallied to continue supplying our 11,172 stores and serving millions of customers every day. They are doing their jobs efficiently, humbly and professionally, giving a fresh sense of nobility to the trade.

Dec 18, 2015

France’s Casino Group announced plans on December 15 to sell its Big C supermarket chain in Vietnam to cut its debts by more than USD2.2 billionnext year.

In a statement on Tuesday, Casino, the majority shareholder in Big C supermarkets, will also sell some of its real estate in Thailand and Colombia, according to the Bangkok Post.

With 32 Big C outlets nationwide, including eight in HCM City, Big C ranks second among retailers in Vietnam after Co.op Mart. The sale of the Vietnam business could raise USD813.86 million for the firm, meanwhile, the value for Thailand and Colombia market is USD596.8 million and USD216.98 million respectively, Bruno Monteyne, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, told Bloomberg news.

The Casino Group is also the second European retailer to announce plans to sell its Vietnamese business, following Germany’s Metro Group which announced in August last year to sell its Vietnamese cash-and-carry unit to Thailand’s Berli Jucker at USD879 million.

Big C Casino Group Las Vegas

Casino Group said it will continue to focus on its key markets in France, Latin America and Asia after selling its assets in Vietnam, Thailand and Colombia.

Big C owns almost 800,000 square metres of gross leasable area in its shopping malls located in prime locations in Thailand and over 300,000 square metres in Colombia.

Source: talkvietnam.com

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An industry source said Central probably made this decision because of its ownership in Tops Supermarket and FamilyMart. Parts of their operations overlap Big C’s, he said, adding that hypermarkets are not Central’s business focus for Thailand. He also noted that the value of Big C Thailand was far higher than Big C Vietnam’s.

“Vietnam seems to be more interesting to Central, judging from the financial sums to be invested in Thailand and possible cannibalisation of Tops and FamilyMart,” the source said.

Big C Casino Groups

Central, the largest retail conglomerate in Thailand, accepted a tender offer from TCC Group. The deal, worth at least Bt50 billion, will help Central finance the purchase of Big C Vietnam.

Central declined to provide any details on the deal, saying its executives were travelling outside the country.

Central Group, which has interests spanning from hotels and resorts to property and restaurants, also bid when Casino Group was selling its Thai assets, eventually losing out to Charoen. He bought the French retailer’s majority 58.6-per-cent stake in Big C Thailand for 3.1 billion euros (Bt124 billion) in February.

Central in partnership with Nguyen Kim Group recently acquired Big C Vietnam from Casino for 920 million euros. Central Group chief executive officer Tos Chirathivat said the acquisition represented the strength of Central’s will to keep expanding its business in Asia. Operating for more than 18 years, Big C Vietnam has 43 stores nationwide, comprising 33 hypermarkets and 10 convenience stores, and 30 shopping malls. Total revenue in 2015 was about 586 million euros.

Quant, an independent financial advisory, applied eight methods to calculate the value of Big C Thailand, suggesting fair prices ranging from Bt152.7 to Bt265.7 per share. The highest price came from the comparison of the company’s price-to-earnings ratio and other domestic retailers’ in the past 12 months.