French retailer Groupe Casino has mandated Moody's Investors Service to asses the credit worthiness of the group, and has received a rating of Ba1, with a stable outlook.
Moody's says that the new rating is based on the group's multi-format retail strategy, its position in Latin America, and its achievements in the e-commerce segment.
"Casino's Ba1 CFR reflects its strong positions in France and Latin America as well as the successful repositioning of its store portfolio," said Vincent Gusdorf, a Moody's vice president, senior analyst and lead analyst for Casino.
"However, the rating also factors in the company's high debt, although we expect Casino to deleverage over the next 12 months, as well as the fiercely competitive retail environment in France which we do not think will abate."
Moody's says that further improvement in the financial profile is expected in the next 12-18 months, to position the company more adequately in the Ba1 rating category.
Retail Position
Although Casino in is the number four position in the French retail market, the ratings agency notes that the retail group is in the co-leading position in Brazil along with Carrefour, and owns Cdiscount, the second largest online retailer in France behind Amazon.
Last month, Groupe Casino said that total same-store growth in its French retail operations was up by 2.5% in the third quarter of the year, driven by 0.6% growth in its retail segment and 18.4% growth at Cdiscount.
Earlier this week, the group signed an international partnership with online retail specialist Ocado, which will see it develop a ‘scalable, modular end-to-end solution’ to help support the French operator’s online channels.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
