France-based supermarket chain Casino has signed a pre-agreement to divest its stake in South American retail company Almacenes Éxito.

The retailer will sell 34.05% of its Éxito Group capital stock to Grupo Calleja, a grocery retailer group.

Grupo Pão de Açucar (GPA), a Brazilian subsidiary of Casino, holds 13.31% of Éxito’s shares and is also party to the Pre-Agreement.

The company agreed to divest its equity interest in the tender offer.

As part of the agreement, Casino will receive $400m for its direct equity interest while GPA will receive $156m.

According to Bloomberg, Exito investors will receive 90.53 cents a share in the deal, valuing the Colombian grocery store chain at $1.2bn.

The transaction is subject to the Financial Superintendency of Colombia’s approval and the necessary filings before the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Grupo Calleja, one of the leading food retailers in El Salvador, operates a network of 110 supermarkets across the Central American country under the banner Super Selectos.

The retailer has more than 7,500 employees and another 4,500 suppliers, per the information on its website.

The agreement comes closely after Groupe Casino entered into a lock-up agreement to restructure its debt with creditors led by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.

Through this deal, Casino will get an equity injection of $1.26bn from the creditors.

Earlier this month, the France-based mass-market retail group completed the sale of the first set of 61 stores in France to Groupement Les Mousquetaires.