Leader Price – Geimex: arbitration decision in the dispute between the Baud family and Casino

– The Casino Group will have to pay €7.25M to the Baud family compared to €550M they originally requested;

– Given the “obvious exaggeration” of their demands, the Baud family has been ordered to reimburse €1M to the Casino Group for legal costs incurred

Saint-Etienne, December 28, 2011 – Casino has become aware of the arbitration decision in the dispute between Casino and the Baud family, as a shareholder of Geimex, which operates the Leader Price brand internationally.

The Baud family accused Casino to have intentionally deprived them of their preferential right when proceeding with the disposal of the polish assets to the Tesco group in 2006. They sought €550M for compensation, reduced to €517M as of the day of the court hearing. Casino, for its part, has always acknowledged the omission of notification but pleaded the unintentional nature of this omission and objected to the obviously excessive demands of the Baud family.

In its decision of December 23, 2011, the arbitration tribunal rejected all claims of intent from Casino and awarded damages of €7.25M for the loss of opportunity caused by the omission of notification, only 1.4% of the amount claimed by the Baud family as reported by the arbitration tribunal.

Casino will have to pay that amount to the Baud family minus €1M, paid by the Baud family to Casino to reimburse legal costs, in light of the “obvious exaggeration” of their demands.

This €6.25M is therefore disproportionate to the Baud family’s initial demands and has no significant impact on the Group’s accounts.

About the Casino Group

The Casino Group is one of the leading food retailers in the world. In addition to its 9,500 outlets in France (Géant Casino, Casino supermarkets, Franprix, Leader Price, Monoprix, Petit Casino, Spar, Vival and Cdiscount), the company has another 2,200 stores, mainly in Latin America (Brazil and Colombia) and South East Asia (Thailand and Vietnam), which account for 40% of its sales. In 2010, Casino had consolidated sales of €29 billion. It employs 230,000 people around the world.

Press contacts

IMAGE 7
Leslie JUNG
Tel. : +44 7818 641 803
ljung@image7.uk.com

GROUPE CASINO
Thierry ORSONI
Tel. +33 (0)1 53 65 24 78
torsoni@groupe-casino.fr