Lagardère: the turning point of austerity in 2021
Audio 02:26
Arnaud Lagardère.
Reuters
By: Amaury de Rochegonde Follow
6 min
We are talking about the Lagardère group, which presented its annual results this week and which expects major changes in its scope, both in the media and in publishing.
Publicity
"
We will not sell Europe 1
" is a sentence that has been remembered because it was uttered by Arnaud Lagardère almost two years ago, on May 10, 2019. The boss then felt that he could not get rid of this radio station out of “loyalty to Jean-Luc”, the founding father, who bought it and managed it in the 1970s. Alas, this firm intention, like the ambition of the left after 1981, did not lasted two years.
Because it is at a real turning point of the rigor that the Lagardère group is now tackling, by considering disposals in the edition where it controls Hachette and in the media where it still owns Europe 1, Paris Match and the Sunday Journal. .
Why such announcements?
Well first of all because it allows Arnaud Lagardère, very indebted in a personal capacity, to bail out.
However in 2020, his group had catastrophic results due to the collapse of the life of businesses in stations and airports.
The Travel Retail branch, which includes the famous Relay boutiques, lost 60% of its activity, which for the group itself resulted in a loss of 660 million euros and a 38% decline in turnover.
Fortunately, Arnaud Lagardère can count on his publishing branch, with Hachette, who has done very well despite the Covid.
The boss of Hachette Livre, Arnaud Nourry, has also felt sufficiently comforted by his results to warn in
Les Echos
against "
any movement to dismantle
" his branch that he considers "
unbearable
".
Because, for some time, all of Paris has been buzzing with rumors that pass for half-truths: Arnaud Lagardère will share his group between his two main shareholders: Vincent Bolloré and Bernard Arnault.
We know that the latter, the boss of LVMH, came to support Arnaud Lagardère by eyeing the
Sunday Journal
and
Paris Match
which would strengthen his group where we already find
Les Echos,
Le Parisien, Investir
and Classic Radio.
So it remains for Bolloré Europe 1, which it wishes to bring closer to its CNews chain, and perhaps also the international activity of Hachette, which it could marry with its subsidiary Editis;
hence Arnaud Nourry's anger.
Officially, Arnaud Lagardère says that nothing is settled and that he wants his two shareholders to agree.
One thing is certain, it is that Vincent Bolloré is not well regarded by the editors and the authors, in particular because of the trials and dismissals with the hussar which it inflicted on them.
Can this lead Bernard Arnault to play a more important role than expected?
This is the whole question.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Media
France