Directors at French retail giant Casino have put forward plans to remove directors Abilio Diniz and Philippe Houzé from its board.
The company has tabled plans to renew its directors’ places on the board, with the exception of Diniz, the tycoon with whom it fell out last year over CBD, Brazil’s largest retailer, and Houzé, the head of French retailer Galeries Lafayette.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Casino is seeking their removal due to “ongoing conflicts” with the company. Its shareholders will vote on the plans at their AGM on 11 May.
The announcement, made yesterday (29 March), follows high-profile disagreements with Diniz and with Galeries Lafayette.
Casino and Diniz have jointly owned CBD, Brazil’s largest retailer, since 2005 but the pair fell out last year when the entrepreneur tried to merge the venture with Carrefour’s operations in the South American country.
Casino rebuffed the plan, which it said broke its agreement with Diniz. The French retailer’s opposition and some public disapproval in Brazil prompted the local state bank that was set to part fund the merger of CBD and Carrefour’s Brazilian unit, to back away from the idea, torpedoing the move.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataLast week, Casino started the process to take sole control of CBD, also known as Grupo Pao de Acucar, telling Diniz that it would exercise its contractual right to remove him as chairman of Wilkes, the holding company that controls CBD. Casino claims it can become CBD’s sole controlling shareholder on 22 June.
The dispute with Galeries Lafayette centres on the future of its Monoprix venture with Casino.
Each retailer owns a 50% stake in Monoprix. In December, Galeries Lafayette started reviewing whether to sell its stake and told Casino it wanted to end their partnership. Galeries Lafayette offered its 50% stake in Monoprix to Casino for EUR1.35bn, which the supermarket operator said was too high. Casino’s advisors have valued the stake at EUR700m.
Casino claims that, under an agreement between the two sides, it can buy a majority stake in Monoprix from 1 January and name the venture’s chairman and chief executive from 31 March.
However, Galeries Lafayette last month moved to keep Houzé as chief executive of Monoprix. Casino has reportedly since started legal action against Galeries Lafayette.
Meanwhile, in a bid to make its board “more international” and to increase female representation among its directors, Casino will also submit to the assembly the nomination of Sylvia Jay, chairman of L’Oreal UK, as a director.
