French retailer Groupe Casino SA’s sale of its Vietnam units has drawn several bids in Asia including from Thai tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, Japan’s Aeon Co. and Korean-Japanese conglomerate Lotte Group, according to people familiar with the matter.
One of the people said “several” of the bids valued Big C Vietnam at more than €1 billion.
Central Group, Thailand’s biggest retailer led by tycoon Tos Chirathivat, as well as Vietnamese companies Co.opmart and Masan Group have also submitted bids, these people said. Nomura Holdings Inc. is advising TCC Group, Mr. Charoen’s Thai conglomerate, on its bid, people familiar with the matter said.
First round bids for the Vietnam unit were due on March 10. Casino is now reviewing the bids and will choose around five companies to conduct due diligence. Final, fully financed offers are then due around mid-April before a decision is made, said the people.
The sale is a further step in Casino’s attempts to reduce its debt pile after the retailer launched a deleveraging plan in 2016 which includes selling its stake in the Thai supermarket as well as Vietnam retail assets and some real estate holdings in Colombia. In all, Casino could raise close to €5 billion from the asset sales.
Casino’s CEO Jean-Charles Naouri said last week that all the proceeds from the sales would go toward reducing Casino’s debt.
Casino has been in the crosshairs of short seller Carson Block, whose Muddy Waters research firm alleged in December that the retailer used accounting gimmicks and financial engineering to hide a sharply declining core business, accusations Casino has contested.
Last week, Mr. Block fired his latest salvo, saying Casino used real-estate transactions to inflate earnings and that accounting and governance problems at Casino’s Brazil unit appeared greater than disclosed. Casino declined to comment.
Casino’s shares have rallied this year, recouping most of their losses since Muddy Waters published its first report.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Jan. 15 put the French retailer’s debt on “negative watch” for a possible downgrade to junk status, citing concerns over the retailer’s high debt as well as weakness in Brazil. It said at the time that it aims to decide on the retailer’s rating within 90 days.
Following Casino’s sale of its stake in Big C Thailand to TCC Group for €3.1 billion, S&P maintained its negative rating. Casino has said it is committed to keeping its investment grade rating.
—P.R. Venkat and Atsuko Fukase contributed to this article
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