Merkur Signs Definitive Deal for Control of Seven-Casino French Group
Merkur Spielbanken Beteiligungs signed the share-transfer agreement with GPG Groupe Philippe Ginestet and DOFA on September 17. Société Française de Casinos, or SFC, disclosed the signing the following morning.
Casigrangi sits above the Le Stelsia casino business and controls seven properties in France. Four are held through listed SFC, in which Casigrangi owns 81.213%.
August Proposal Becomes a Signed Agreement
The acquisition itself is not new. What changed in September is its status.
Merkur’s first announcement came on August 28, when the parties had a put option covering the proposed sale. Employee procedures still had to be completed before a binding transfer agreement could be signed.
That process has now run its course. The employee committee at Casino de Gruissan issued a positive opinion on September 2, while the Casigrangi employee information procedure ended on September 7. Ten days later, the parties signed.
There is also a useful way to look at the ownership structure. Merkur is buying 95% of Casigrangi, while Casigrangi holds 81.213% of SFC. On that basis, the acquired stake represents roughly 77.15% of SFC on a look-through basis.
DOFA will retain the other 5% of Casigrangi for now. That minority position is covered by put and call arrangements between the parties.
€6.19 Price Points to €31.5M for Listed SFC
The €6.19 reference price remains unchanged from the August proposal. The transaction implies €6.19 per SFC share, the same price set for the mandatory offer expected to follow. Using the 5,092,470 shares cited in the filing, the listed company’s implied equity value is about €31.5 million. That figure should not be read as the purchase price for Casigrangi as a whole.
Casigrangi owns three casinos directly (in Megève, Granville and Mimizan) in addition to its SFC stake. SFC itself operates casinos in Gruissan, Port-la-Nouvelle, Collioure and Châtel-Guyon. The ownership structure was set out in the original August announcement.
The €6.19 level was also well above SFC’s market price before the deal surfaced. It represented a 157.9% premium to the August 27 close and 195.9% over the 240-day volume-weighted average price.
What Happens to SFC Next
Merkur does not own the casinos yet. The transfer still requires approvals, including authorization from the French Ministry of Interior, and the parties are working toward completion in the first quarter of 2027.
After that, the focus moves to SFC’s remaining shareholders. Merkur is due to make a simplified cash offer at €6.19 per share.
The group has already said what it wants to do if enough shares come in: take SFC private. A squeeze-out and delisting would follow if the legal ownership thresholds are met. The offer process is currently expected during the first half of 2027.