After having formalized its acquisition of 34% of Nice-Matin , Xavier Niel, co-owner of the World , saw his offer of recovery rejected Friday by employees-shareholders of the newspaper, holders of the remaining 66%, who preferred that of Iskandar Safa , owner of Current Values .
Sling of the employees
In the early afternoon, Xavier Niel, founder of Free (Iliad group), announced that he has taken control of the 34% of Nice-Matin held since 2016 by the Belgian group Nethys via its holding Avenir Développement. An acquisition that theoretically paved the way for 100% of the capital of the regional newspaper under the shareholders' agreement binding Avenir Développement and SCIC Nice-Matin, this cooperative where employees invested their 13th month in 2014 to become owners of % of their newspaper.
But the 456 employee-shareholders, gathered in a general meeting on Friday afternoon voted 60% in favor of the competing project, led by the French-Lebanese magnate Iskandar Safa, who made a fortune in the shipyards. A vote that results in a denunciation of the shareholders' pact. In a statement, the group's CEO, Jean-Marc Pastorino, in favor of the Safa project, said Friday night that the vote marked "the choice of a future". Without quoting Xavier Niel, he believes that this decision "counteracts an attempt to fraud the rights of employee shareholders to choose (their) new partner."
Journalists vote for Niel
The tension was strong within the Nice-Matin group on Friday night. Because the college of journalists voted by a very large majority (98.33%) for the offer of Niel, by 137 votes against 6. "No to Safa! It is the strong and clear message that has been delivered by the journalists, "insisted the group's editorials in a statement Friday evening, announcing their decision to stop work. A decision that should lead to the absence in Saturday kiosks titles Nice-Matin, Var-Matin and Monaco-Matin .
Because with this vote for Iskandar Safa, and the denunciation of the pact of shareholders that leads in fact, the journalists fear now that the group is "plunged into a long, expensive and uncertain judicial battle". "We are facing two truths," said Denis Carreaux, the editor of the group, with AFP: "The legal and economic truth, which makes the shareholders' pact gives Xavier Niel a pre-emption right of the 66% of the capital held by SCIC, as of February 1, 2020. And the truth of the general meeting. "
Xavier Niel's reaction to the rejection of his offer by employees was not yet known Friday evening. In a letter to employees of the group, Thursday, the boss of Free had yet tried to coax them, stating in particular that he was willing to offer "a price higher" to 925,000 euros provided by the shareholders' agreement for the purchase of shares. 66% held by SCIC. In this letter sent to the cooperators of SCIC, to Jean-François Roubaud, the chairman of the supervisory board of the group Nice Matin, and to Jean-Marc Pastorino, Xavier Niel also stressed that employees who wish to remain shareholders could do so, up to 10 to 20% maximum.
Political issues at the approach of the municipal
The soap opera will continue around Nice-Matin . It started in early March with the opening of a safeguard procedure for the newspaper, and at the request of its leaders, tired of the Belgian shareholders of Nethys, qualified as "absent". At one year of municipal elections, with a possible duel between Christian Estrosi, the mayor LR of the city, and his former eminence gray, Eric Ciotti, this fight for control of Nice-Matin will in any case scrutinized carefully on the coast of 'Azure.
Already candidate for the resumption of Nice-Matin in 2014, with other partners, Iskandar Safa is related to the Leroy family, who has been running the town hall of Mandelieu-La Napoule for nearly 25 years and embodies the hard wing of the right LR, the tendency of the deputy Ciotti. Xavier Niel is often presented as close to Emmanuel Macron. And Christian Estrosi, labeled "Macron-compatible", also called the Republicans early June to work in "coalitions with the presidential majority."