Paris, 29/01/2025
Intermarché, a member of Groupement Les Mousquetaires, has chosen EthiFinance Ratings, the credit rating arm of EthiFinance, to provide credit ratings for its €500 million bond issue, in addition to the €300 million bond issued in July 2024.
The purpose of this issue is to partially refinance its debt linked to the acquisition of approximately 284 Casino shops, for a total worth €3 billion.
This acquisition should enable Groupe Les Mousquetaires to gain market share in France, with a target of 20% market share by 2027.
EthiFinance Ratings has assigned a long-term corporate rating of BBB to ITM Entreprises, with a Stable outlook. The existing €300 million bond and the new €500 million bond have also been rated BBB.
“EthiFinance Ratings, which has been rating ITM Entreprises for the past 5 years, is pleased that its rating has enabled the company to issue on the bond markets and thus to reassure investors of its financial strength,” says Carol Sirou, CEO of EthiFinance, thereby welcoming the recognition of the credit rating agency’s methodology and teams in the European financial markets.
“We are convinced of the resilience of the sector in which ITM Entreprises operates. The group is well positioned, being the third largest player in France, and is well diversified in terms of activities and shop formats. Despite a deterioration in the group’s financial ratios due to the Casino transaction, we expect the group to deleverage and to return to a more standard financial leverage ratio as of 2026,” adds Thomas Dilasser, Head of Corporate and Project Finance Ratings at EthiFinance Ratings.
“Groupement Mousquetaires has had a short-term rating by EthiFinance Ratings since 2020, when it issued its NEU CP programme. Even back then, we believed in the full legitimacy of a French agency that is as close as possible to the realities on the ground. The retail sector is very specific in France. It is characterized by the presence of independent groups, and EthiFinance Ratings managed to understand our model perfectly and to see all its advantages.
Our relationship of trust over the past four years has naturally led us to choose EthiFinance Ratings for our long-term rating”, emphasizes Arnaud de Ligniville, CFO of Groupement Mousquetaires.
