KEDGE BUSINESS SCHOOL EXPERT OPINION – 20.06.2019
The CASINO affair, the lessons to be drawn according to Eric PICHET, Professor of finance and researcher in corporate governance at KEDGE
With the Rallye group placed in a safeguard procedure, indebted and faced with the collapse of the Casino share, which represents its main asset and its guarantee for creditors, Eric Pichet, professor of finance and researcher in corporate governance at KEDGE Business School, decodes the affair.
According to Eric Pichet, the procedure initiated by Jean-Charles Naouri to seek protection from the Paris commercial court for the holdings of the Casino group marks “the victory of independent financial analysts who criticised the group’s enormous debt, of the hedge funds that short-sold the share and the whistleblowers who unsuccessfully attempted to attract the attention of the Financial Markets’ Authority (AMF) to the opaque accounts, despite the intimidation and pressure exerted by the group’s management”.
In an opinion piece published on The Conversation website, Eric Pichet offers his analysis “four major lessons can be drawn from this failure: the first on corporate strategy, the second on the board of director’s role, the third on the necessity of an independent financial analysis ecosystem and the last on the stock market regulator’s mission and actions”.
In particular, the expert mentions that it is still too early to “measure the extent of the failings of the auditors and audit committees of Casino and Rallye”, while noting that “the Financial Markets Authority is the first victim of the affair”.
Read the whole of the opinion piece by Eric Pichet: https://theconversation.com/les-quatre-grandes-lecons-de-laffaire-casino-117844
Eric Pichet is at your disposal should you have any requests for an interview or coverage on this topical subject.
More about Eric Pichet
Eric Pichet, Professor, Director of the Specialised Masters Programme in Wealth Management & Real Estate Management (IMPI) has a doctorate and an HDR (Research Authorisation) in Management Sciences (2008, Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale) and a doctorate in law from Panthéon-ASSAS. His teaching and his research chiefly concern the global macroeconomic environment, monetary policy, alternative assets (including real estate) corporate governance, private taxation, public finances and fiscal economics. Among other things, he has published a methodological guide, L’Art de l’HDR, intended for doctors in social sciences, La Théorie actionnariale éclairée (Enlightened Shareholders Theory : whose Interest Should be Served by the Supporters of Corporate Governance) and in 2016, La Théorie générale des dépenses socio-fiscales.
