Paris (AFP)

In default, Paris-Turf joined Le Monde and La Provence in the hands of Xavier Niel, the founder of Free, according to the decision of the commercial court of Bobigny published Tuesday and consulted by AFP.

The court preferred the offer from NJJ Presse, Xavier Niel's personal holding company, to take over the first horse press group in France (Paris Turf, Bilto, Cheval Magazine etc.).

NJJ's offer proposed to take 151 employees out of 248, including 30 freelancers. The founder of Iliad (Free), who came in person to defend his case at the commercial court, plans to invest 12 million euros over three years in the group.

The offer includes the discontinuation of the paper editions of the daily newspapers Bilto and Tiercé Magazine, and of the monthly Stato, Cheval Magazine and Cheval Pratique.

It also provides for the cessation of activity on the Aix-en-Provence site and the cessation of printing in Vitrolles. Xavier Niel could set up "printing synergies" with La Provence and Nice-Matin, in which he recently became a shareholder. The businessman is also a co-shareholder of the Le Monde group, and has just taken over France-Antilles.

"It's a blow for the employees," reacted Ludovic Hellier, journalist and SNJ-FO union representative at Paris-Turf. The group's employees had supported the competing offer, a little more favorable to employment, carried by the printer Riccobono, associated with Mayeul Cairo, founder of the daily "Jour de galop", Eric Brion, ex-boss d'Equidia and Philippe Abreu, member of the Executive Board of Paris Turf.

The employees were on Tuesday on their eighth day of strike, to obtain better conditions for recovery. On Friday, a large part of the editorial staff sent a letter to NJJ to warn it "that it was not able to work with the current management, because of its strategic errors and its obstinacy to carry out the projects by implying writing only after decisions are made. "

"The judgment does not exempt Xavier Niel's advice from coming to discuss," said Ludovic Hellier.

The group, which publishes a dozen titles, suffered from the cessation of racing due to the coronavirus, which forced it to suspend the printing of its newspapers, as well as the situation of the distributor Presstalis. With a turnover of 65.6 million euros, it was sold for one million euros.

A dozen offers had been submitted, but only two concerned the entire scope of the group (press and horse and sports betting).

A third offer in the form of SCOP mounted by the unions, which proposed the resumption of all the workforce, had finally been withdrawn for lack of cash, wages were no longer paid, according to a union representative.

For the group's activity in online betting (Geny), the case will be judged separately on July 23 (buyers must receive prior approval from the Gaming Regulatory Authority). The Paris-Turf group was taken over in 2013 by Jacques-Henri Eyraud, the current president of OM.

© 2020 AFP