>>>‘Casino: Heads They Lose, Tails They Lose’ http://blog.argonautcapital.co.uk/articles/ Casino is anything but a boring supermarket story. Faced with increasing price competition in its native France a number of years ago, Casino decided to lever its balance sheet to acquire assets in emerging market countries, namely Brazil, Thailand, Columbia and Vietnam. Whilst this initially bought the company top-line growth, the combination of Euro denominated debt with emerging market earnings has now become problematic given the deterioration in emerging market macro conditions, currency headwinds, and increasing competition in local markets. Moreover, a deeper examination of its accounting practices and complex holding company structures presents further questions around the ability of Casino and in particularly Rallye - the holding company of CEO Jean-Charles Naouri - to sustainably service its debt.