Caen (AFP)

The Rouen Commercial Court on Tuesday ordered the liquidation of the daily Paris-Normandy with an extension of activity for three months, according to Jean-Louis Louvel, its owner.

The daily, indebted for several years, employs 216 employees according to their lawyer Jessy Levy. According to management, the coronavirus health crisis has interrupted the "slow recovery" of the newspaper.

The newspaper is more than 90% owned by Jean-Louis Louvel, head of several Norman companies and candidate supported by LREM, who arrived third in the first round of municipal elections in Rouen on March 15.

Management announced Thursday requesting a liquidation with extension of activity of SNIC, publisher of the newspaper which displays 7 million euros of debt (against 10 million in 2017).

"This situation is the direct consequence of the impact of Covid-19 on the turnover of our company," she said. The newspaper founded in 1944 shows a 90% drop in advertising revenue.

The employees, who have experienced three legal proceedings since 2012, are of course "worried", according to the SNJ.

"It is assumed that there will be several buyers because the famous debt will be canceled", if the liquidation is pronounced with extension of activity, said Anne Bouchet. It remains to be seen if these offers will be "serious" and if employees will remain "on the floor".

Jean-Louis Louvel assured in court that he had already had contacts with buyers, he told AFP. "I have no doubt that several offers will be made," he said in court.

Monday, the unsuccessful candidate for the resumption of the newspaper in 2017, the Belgian group Rossel (Le Voix du Nord), did not wish to indicate whether he would make an offer again.

On April 15, the court had pronounced the liquidation with continuation of activity for the RNP, the advertising management of the title which employs 25 people according to Me Levy.

Located only in ex-Haute Normandie, of which it is the only local daily, Paris Normandie has 22,500 paper subscribers and 1,500 web subscribers, according to management. In 2019, the newspaper circulated about 41,280 copies, or 6.9% less than in 2018, according to the Acpm, certification body for press audiences. A drop above the regional press average.

President of the wooden pallet company PGS, which employs 1,300 people, Mr. Louvel bought Paris Normandie in 2017 from journalist Xavier Ellie, to whom the Hersant group sold it in 2012.

© 2020 AFP