Paris (AFP)

The Lagardère group announced Monday evening that it had renewed for four years the mandate of manager of Arnaud Lagardère, which was initially due to end in March, and began a reorganization of its governance with in particular the creation of a management board .

This decision comes less than a week after the formation of an alliance between the two main shareholders of the group, Vivendi and the investment fund Amber Capital, in order to request four seats on the board of directors of Lagardère and the convening of a general meeting at the start of the school year.

"The supervisory board approved the renewal of the mandate of manager of Mr. Arnaud Lagardère for a period of four years from August 17, 2020", explains the group in its press release, justifying this choice by the need to "stabilize the governance of the group in an unprecedented period ".

Until now, the duration of the management mandate was six years.

Lagardère saw its half-year results deteriorate sharply due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, plunging into the red in the first half of the year, in particular due to a collapse in its Travel Retail activity, which concerns distribution in places of transport (stations and airports).

At the same time as the renewal of the mandate of its manager, the group is setting up a "management board" made up of the five members of the executive board as well as the two managers of Lagardère Publishing and Lagardère Travel Retail.

The management also presented a "strategic roadmap" in order to face the crisis, which involves an "adaptation of the concession model to gain in agility and flexibility" concerning Travel Retail, and an offensive attitude on the side of the publishing, for which the group intends to take advantage of "numerous short-term consolidation opportunities".

This strengthening of management appears to be a response to the pact announced on August 11 by Vivendi and Amber Capital, which respectively hold 23.5% and 20% of Lagardère's capital and wanted to take steps to have representation on the Supervisory Board. minority, three members for Amber Capital and one member for Vivendi.

For the first two shareholders, the aim was to strengthen their position with a view to the renewal of Arnaud Lagardère's mandate as manager, initially scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.

Amber Capital has never ceased to repeat its desire to "request the appointment of one or more members to the supervisory board", and to work for the transformation into a public limited company of Lagardère, currently under the status of limited partnership by share, recalls he.

This atypical status of the Lagardère group allows the boss and heir of the company Arnaud Lagardère (general partner) to retain control with only around 7% of the shares. In return, he is liable indefinitely for the debts of the company on his own property.

© 2020 AFP