Paris (AFP)
The supervisory board of the Lagardère group on Monday rejected the request of the Amber Capital fund and the media giant Vivendi to convene an extraordinary general meeting, but said it was ready to "open a constructive and peaceful shareholder dialogue", in a press release.
Amber, who has been challenging the governance of the Lagardère group for more than two years, of which he is the second shareholder, formally requested on August 20 the convening of a general meeting by the end of October.
The fund recently joined forces with media giant Vivendi, now the largest shareholder at Lagardère, to demand the replacement of three members of the supervisory board.
Monday evening in its press release, Lagardère's supervisory board said it had "studied the joint request" of Amber and Vivendi, but "considered that the legal conditions were not met to deviate from the social calendar known to all shareholders".
"He noted that the last general meeting was validly held on May 5 after several months of intense debates on the governance of the group, there was no legitimate reason for the convening of a new meeting. general in an emergency ", continues Lagardère.
"However", indicates the supervisory board, "in agreement with the management", he said to have "decided to open a constructive and peaceful shareholder dialogue. This is why the appointments, remuneration and CSR committee is has received the candidacy of Virginie Banet, which it will examine in particular with regard to its independence and the criteria set out in the group's 2019 universal registration document.
"In this context, management will approach Amber to open a dialogue of the same nature," he said.
According to several media, Ms. Banet's candidacy for the supervisory board was proposed by Vivendi.
In recent weeks, two members of the supervisory board have resigned: the general manager of the French activities of the auction house Christie's, Aline Sylla-Walbaum, and Yves Guillemot, CEO of the video game publisher Ubisoft.
© 2020 AFP