By Mauro Orru
Shares of Casino Guichard-Perrachon jumped in Monday morning trading after a French court temporarily halted payment obligations relating to a number of notes issued by the embattled French grocer.
At 0925 GMT, Casino shares traded 5.2% higher at EUR3.65.
Casino said late Friday that the president of the Paris Commercial Court had made the decision, with a ruling on the issue due in September.
For months, Casino has been grappling with stubbornly high debt and sliding market share in its home country. Earlier this year, the group entered talks with creditors to ensure it had enough liquidity to keep operations running. Casino’s net debt came in at 6.1 billion euros ($6.59 billion) at the end of June, up from EUR5.1 billion at the end of March.
Last month, the group entered into an agreement in principle with a consortium led by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky to shore up its capital base and restructure its debt.
The consortium had proposed an injection of EUR1.20 billion in new equity into the group, with EUR275 million reserved for creditors and existing shareholders.
Write to Mauro Orru at [email protected]; @MauroOrru94
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