Casino announces the establishment of a sponsored level 1 ADR program in the US

Regulatory News:

Casino (Paris:CO)(FR0000125585 - CO), one of the leading food retailers in the world, announces today that the company has established a Sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program in the United States and has appointed Deutsche Bank as the depositary bank for this program.

The ADRs will trade in the United States beginning today in the over-the-counter (OTC) market. Under the program, each Casino ordinary share is represented by five ADRs. The Casino’s ordinary shares are listed on Compartiment A of Euronext Paris under the symbol CO.

The ADR security identification numbers are:

With US investors showing an increasing interest in Casino, this program has been designed to provide them with even more opportunities to be part of the Group’s growth story.

Casino’s existing unsponsored ADRs that have been trading in the US market will be now converted into the sponsored ADR program as Casino establishes the program with its official involvement.

As of end-2011, Casino holds a 13% market share in food retail in France thanks to a complementary mix of convenience, discount and hypermarkets stores. Casino is also the leader in non-food e-commerce through Cdiscount in France.

Outside France, Casino has a leading presence on four fast-growing markets through CBD (Grupo Pao de Acucar) in Brazil, Exito in Colombia and Big C in Thailand and in Vietnam.

Casino’s sponsored ADR program is not for the purpose of raising capital in the US market and does not involve the issue of new shares. Nothing herein shall be deemed to constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities.