Casino Increases Stake In Exito

French retailer Casino Guichard Perrachon announced on Tuesday that it had exercised its right of first offer to buy a 24.5% stake of Colombia’s largest supermarket chain Exito in which it already has a 38% share. Casino said it had offered to pay 13,052 Colombian pesos ($5.86) per share for the 51.2 million shares owned by the Toro family for a total of around $300 million. According to the Exito shareholders’ agreement, Casino and the Toro family have 15 days to agree on the sale procedure. If no agreement is reached by the end of this period, the Toro family will sell the shares through a “martillo” auction process on the Colombian stock exchange. Casino’s offer is higher than the 12,400 pesos ($5.58) per share offered last October by Chilean retailer Cencosud. Following Casino’s announcement, Cencosud said it was dropping its offer. Last year, Exito bought its rival Carulla Vivero – the country’s second-largest retailer – for $433 million.