French casino operator Groupe Partouche has continued the sale of its land-based Belgian casinos, selling off its second venue in the country through its Belcasinos subsidiary.
The sale of Casino van Dinant to an unnamed buyer for a total of €10.75m follows the sale of Casino Knokke in November last year. In the financial year ending October 31st 2013, the casino reported gross proceeds of €6.2m and made a negative contribution of €0.2m to the group’s consolidated EBITDA.
The deal does not include the online gaming site Partouche.be which operates under an A+ licence linked to a separate entity. It remains unclear at this time whether the licence will be transferred to a different casino in the group, similar to Casino Knokke’s licence for Jackpotparty.be.
Partouche still owns two land-based venues in Belgium, Casino van Oostende and Casino de Chaudfontaine. Casino van Oostende has established a partnership with bwin.party to offer iGaming under the bwin.be domain, while the Chaudfontaine venue is yet to set up an online gaming partnership.
Partouche began its divestment programme after seeking creditor protection at the Tribunal de Commerce de Paris in October 2013. The company is currently unable to pay debts of €233.7m, with the safeguarding allowing it to suspend debt repayments to avoid insolvency and raise funds to repay creditors.
As part of the process, Partouche has also completed the sale of US real estate assets that it owned, selling off property in Reno, Nevada, for $2.2m (€1.6m).
At the same time, the company has secured approval from the French Ministry of Interior to offer land-based bingo in France at its Pasino venue in Aix en Provence. Partouche explained that adding bingo to the venue’s offering “makes sense” for the business and would be an innovative addition to its offering.