Paris (AFP)

Banker Matthieu Pigasse and his ally, the Czech tycoon Daniel Kretinsky, are negotiating the purchase of the shares of the Spanish media group Prisa in the daily Le Monde, it was reported Tuesday night.

In a statement sent to AFP, Le Nouveau Monde, 51% owned by Matthieu Pigasse (via its LNEI media group) and 49% by Daniel Kretinsky, announced "to have entered into exclusive negotiations with Prisa for the acquisition of its stake in LML (Le Monde Libre).

LML, created during the recomposition of the capital of the World in 2010, is a holding company through which several investors including Matthieu Pigasse and Xaviel Niel together are the majority shareholders of the World, with 75% of the shares of the newspaper.

By buying the shares of Prisa, Pigasse and Kretinsky, who already hold around 26% of LML, would become almost majority in this holding which controls Le Monde, since they would rise to 46% of the capital.

Prisa, owner of the Madrid daily El Pais, owns 20% of LML after having participated in the bailout of the World in 2005 and in 2010. But the Spanish group, which suffered last year a heavy loss (nearly 270 million euros, twice as much as in 2017, seems resolved to part with them.

In its statement, LMN points out that Prisa has notified it "its wish to sell its stake in LML", and "it is in this context that LNM and Prisa entered into discussion," says the company, adding that the buyout could to be buckled "in the fall".

"If it were to be realized, LNM would finance this transaction on its own financial means" and "the capital control of LNM would remain unchanged," insists the company, noting that Matthieu Pigasse would continue to hold the majority of NML, which he sold 49 % to Daniel Kretinsky.

In addition, the Pigasse-Kretinsky tandem ensures that it acts "in the sole interest of the Le Monde Libre Group and its collaborators, with the sole aim of reinforcing the full respect of its editorial and editorial independence and preserving its equilibrium, as well as pluralism and the diversity of its shareholding ".

And in this context, he says "naturally at the disposal of all shareholders of LML to discuss all that will be useful to achieve this goal."

According to Médiapart and Le Canard Enchaîné, who reported on these negotiations before they were made official, they could provoke a deterioration of the relations between investors shareholders of Le Monde, the satirical weekly to appear Wednesday stating that Xavier Niel would consider an "aggression" this project of rise to capital.

? 2019 AFP