Steinhoff International Holdings NV is considering the sale of properties within French furniture chain Conforama, the latest move by the embattled retailer to shore up its balance sheet, according to people familiar with the matter. The value of the portfolio is about 800 million euros ($907 million), said the people, who asked not to be named as the information isn’t public, Bloomberg News reported. The properties are held outside European real-estate subsidiary Hemisphere, which is disposing of assets as part of a debt-restructuring deal, they said.
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Rallye SA, the indebted parent of French retailer Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA, may soon face a new front in its battle against short sellers, Bloomberg News reported. Distressed debt funds betting against the company have been buying up a Rallye bond due in January 2022 that may enable them to force a default, according to people familiar with the matter. That’s because the bond includes a clause stating that if the company’s net worth falls below a certain level, the investors can call in the debt if a majority agree, said the people, asking not to be identified because it’s private.
Manufacturers from the eurozone’s two largest economies painted a gloomy picture of the outlook for the sector on Wednesday, with closely-watched indicators sinking to more than two-year lows in both countries. In Germany, the decline in sentiment extended to the services sector, dragging the composite output purchasing managers’ index to a 41-month low of 52.7. The fall in the gauge was far sharper than analysts polled by Reuters had expected: a drop of just 0.2 points to 54.8 had been anticipated.
French tyre maker Michelin warned of declining sales in Europe and China in the second half of the year, dragging down shares of its competitors in the US and Europe, the Irish Times reported. Demand for Michelin’s products fell in Western Europe because of new emissions-testing standards that have dented car sales, and dropped off in China as its auto market slumped, the company, based in Clermont Ferrand, France, said Thursday. “Given the significant decline in the passenger-car and light-truck and truck-tyre markets late in the third quarter and the further weakness ex
German carmaker Opel, owned by France’s PSA Group, said on Tuesday it would stop selling the Cascada convertible, the Adam city car and the KARL at the end of 2019, as part of a product overhaul to focus on sport-utility vehicles. The maker Opel and British Vauxhall branded cars blamed new emissions rules for the cull, but the carmaker has struggled to reach sustainable profitability after racking up more than a decade of losses selling low-margin cars under previous owner General Motors, Reuters reported.
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French carmaker PSA Group is open to new industry tie-ups and is attracting attention from competitors after its lightning turnaround and swift progress in restructuring recently acquired Opel, Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said. The maker of Peugeot cars, which came close to bankruptcy in 2013-14, has rebounded under Tavares to record levels of profitability, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.
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French consumers are becoming increasingly nervous. A closely watched indicator of consumer confidence dropped again in September and remains below its historical average, as citizens worried their financial stability and standard of living would decline over the coming year, the Financial Times reported. Households’ confidence in the economic situation declined by two points to 94, below analyst expectations of 97 according to a Thomson Reuters poll and its lowest level since April 2016, data released on Wednesday by Insee showed.
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Confidence among French manufacturers deteriorated in September, as industrialists cut their expectations about how much they would produce, the Financial Times reported. The manufacturing business climate index fell to 107 in September, below analysts’ expectations of 109 in a Thomson Reuters poll. The figure was also down from August’s reading of 110, the data published by national statistics agency Insee showed. However, the composite indicator for manufacturing remains “well above” its long term average of 100, Insee said.
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France’s budget deficit will temporarily increase again next year due to slowing growth and a changing tax regime, tightening president Emmanuel Macron’s room for manoeuvre as he pushes for European reforms, the Financial Times reported. In Mr Macron’s first budget since the country’s deficit finally fell below the European Union’s 3 per cent spending rules earlier this year, France said it would show a deficit of 2.8 per cent next year compared to 2.6 per cent this year.
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Rallye, the debt-laden parent of French supermarket chain Casino, bought more time on Monday ahead of a key bond refinancing deadline as five banks granted it a new 500 million euro (444.50 million pounds) credit line, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Top banks BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, Crédit Industriel et Commercial, HSBC and Natixis gave Rallye the additional credit until 2020 with no collateral, demonstrating "their willingness to support Rallye in the long term," Rallye said in a statement.
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