Arnaud Lagardère once again saves his head. The lying poker game around the Lagardère group continued on Monday evening, with the early renewal of Arnaud Lagardère's mandate as manager, less than a week after the announcement of an alliance between Vivendi and the Amber Capital fund for try to weaken it.
Vivendi and Amber Capital in ambush
The new mandate runs for a period of four years from August 17, 2020. This is not, however, completely a victory: until now, previous renewals were made over a period of six years. But Arnaud Lagardère can be satisfied because he was very hot. The alliance between Vivendi and Amber Capital aimed to request four seats on the board of directors and the convening of a general meeting at the start of the school year. The goal was clearly to oust him before his reappointment, initially scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.
The company justifies its choice to anticipate the renewal of the mandate by the need to "stabilize the governance of the group in an unprecedented period". Lagardère saw its half-year results deteriorate sharply due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, plunging into the red in the first half of the year, in particular due to a collapse in its Travel Retail activity, which concerns distribution in places of transport.
Arnaud Lagardère supervised
Along with the renewal of the mandate of its manager, the group is setting up a “management board” made up of the five members of the executive board as well as the two managers of Lagardère Publishing and Lagardère Travel Retail. Management also presented a “strategic roadmap” to deal with the crisis.
But behind the scenes, Arnaud Lagardère owes his salvation only to the support of Bernard Arnault in the face of the claims of Vivendi and Amber Capital, which respectively hold 23.5% and 20% of Lagardère's capital. The billionaire at the head of the luxury group LVMH had announced at the end of May that he would come to pay off part of Arnaud Lagardère's debts against 25% of the shares of the heir's personal holding company. This surprise arrival had called into question the hope of several shareholders to see things evolve quickly within governance. Bernard Arnault is today essential for any strategic decision affecting the activities of Lagardère SCA, in particular asset disposals.
If Arnaud Lagardère has just scored a point, other rounds are looming. Amber Capital has never ceased to repeat its desire to work for the transformation into a public limited company of Lagardère, currently under the status of limited partnership by share. This atypical status allows the boss and heir of the company to retain control with only around 7% of the capital. In return, he is liable indefinitely for the debts of the company on his own property. Case to be continued ...
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- Vivendi
- Bernard arnault
- Lagardere
- Arnaud Lagardere
- Economy