Leader Price Casino Hotel

SUPERMARKETS: The Casino group is no longer in exclusive negotiations with Aldi for the acquisition of Leader price

The 700 Leader Price stores are still for sale. And contrary to what had been announced in January, the Aldi chain is not the only interested in this acquisition, according to information from Business Insider.

In September 2019, the German hard discounter entered into exclusive negotiations with Casino for the takeover of the Leader Price supermarket park. The amount of the transaction was estimated at more than 400 million euros at the time. In January, we learned that the two parties had agreed on an amount of 750 million.

Leader Price Vs Casino

French supermarket retailer Casino said on Friday it had agreed to sell 567 Leader Price stores, and three warehouses, to German discount rival Aldi in a deal worth 735 million euros ($792 million. Casino Group will remain the owner of the brand Leader Price, used through private label products, currently sold across some of the group’s formats in France and internationally. The sale will take place after the consultation of various employee representative bodies and will need to be approved by the French Competition Authority. The Leader Price brand does not disappear. The Casino group remains the owner and will even continue to operate 70 stores under this brand in France, only in areas far from those of Aldi. 'At the same time, the 95 Overseas and Italian Leader Prices also remain Leader Price,' said the spokesperson. Debt-laden French retailer Casino has agreed to sell 567 Leader Price stores in France, plus three warehouses, to German discount rival Aldi in a deal with an enterprise value of 735 million euros.

Objective: to go beyond Lidl

The Casino group would now have more choices to sell Leader Price, which it became the owner in 1997. Since December 2019, other players have “shown interest” in the store base and “have had access to information from the disposal, ”says Business Insider. Aldi and Casino are still in negotiations.

Casino Leader Price Disposal

A decision could also fall within a few weeks. The expectation comes from “the complexity [of the file] linked to the different statuses of the 700 Leader Price stores”. If Aldi, which has around 900 points of sale in France, concludes this purchase, it could catch up with Lidl, its competitor. In 2019, the German distributor’s market share represented 2.4% compared to 5.9% for Lidl, which has 1,500 stores in the territory.