Grocer Casino has sold 9.8% of its stake in its real estate subsidiary Mercialys via an equity swap with French bank Crédit Agricole, generating E138m (£112.1m).

It followed Casino’s disclosure in early February of its plans for Mercialys, in which the retailer would decrease its holding in the property company in order to strengthen its financial flexibility by receiving a gross cash inflow of E800m to E900m (£650m to £731.4m) over the course of this financial year. Casino now owns 40.2% of Mercialys.