Colombia’s Exito Expects Full Payment from Venezuela

Colombia’s retailer Exito has received $72.4m out of a $90.5m payment it is owed from the sale of Venezuela’s Cativen retailer to the Venezuelan government. Exito expects to receive the last installment of $18.1m in November 2012 which would finalize the transaction. Exito officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The payments to Exito stem from French retailer Casino’s decision in November 2010 to sell an 80.1% stake in Cativen to the Venezuelan government for $690m. The sale included Exito’s 28.6% holding in the company. As part of the deal with the government, Casino retained 19.9% to provide operational support. The deal involved a 60% upfront payment to Casino upon the closing of the deal, with 20% paid in cash and 40% in two dollar denominated promissory notes maturing in Nov 30 2010 and Nov 30 2011.