Casino To Sell 32 Store Properties To Apollo Global For EUR 470 Mln

(RTTNews) - French retailer Casino Group (0HB1.L, CGUIY.PK) announced its agreement to sell a portfolio of 12 Géant Casino hypermarkets and 20 Monoprix and Casino supermarkets to funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, LLC.(APO). The sale is for 470 million euros.

The company will receive 374 million euros, which is around 80% of the value of the assets after deducting registration fees, by the end of July 2019 with the proposed deal closure.

The company said these 32 properties are located primarily outside Paris, and represent 26.6 million euros in annual rent. This includes 14.2 million euros from hypermarket assets and 12.4 million euros from Monoprix and supermarket assets.

The proposed transaction is subject to the provision of financing.

Apollo Funds will create a special purpose vehicle for the acquisition, in which Casino will receive an interest. Casino could receive up to an additional 110 million euros in the next few years depending on the new entity's performance.

Casino said the sale is part of its plan to dispose additional 1 billion euros worth of non-core assets by first quarter of 2020.

The company continues to expect annual growth for France's trading profit or 10%.