He will acquire "in the coming days" from the Amber Capital fund the 17.5% of shares that the latter holds in Lagardère and will deposit "by February" the takeover bid announced in September on the remaining Lagardère shares.
As the largest shareholder of Lagardère with already 27% of the capital, Vivendi has embarked on a vast media conquest operation and announced in mid-September its intention to take control of Lagardère (Hachette, Europe 1, JDD, Paris Match, etc.), by first buying back Amber's shares and then filing a takeover bid on the rest of the group's capital.
He will acquire 24,685,108 Amber shares, at the announced price of 24.10 euros per share and will thus hold 45.1% of Lagardère's capital, the press release said on Thursday.
An initial 0.4% minority stake in Amber had already been purchased directly by Vivendi in September.
"The completion of this transaction should take place by December 15, 2022, once the required regulatory authorizations have been obtained", but "the analyzes recently carried out by Vivendi led it to consider that this acquisition could take place immediately". when Vivendi "will not exercise the voting rights attached to all the shares acquired from Amber Capital or within the framework of the public offer until the takeover of Lagardère is authorized by the competition authorities ", specified Vivendi, which will hold 22.29% of the theoretical voting rights during this period.
The group indicates that "applications for authorization to take control of Lagardère from the European Commission and other relevant competition authorities" will be filed "during the year 2022".
The operation is in fact subject to the green light of several authorities, including the Superior Audiovisual Council (future Arcom) and the European Commission, due to the risks of concentration in the publishing sectors (Vivendi is the owner of Editis) and the media.
The proposed takeover bid will be filed "by February 2022" with the Autorité des marchés financiers at a price of 24.10 euros per share, the same as that paid to acquire the shares of Amber Capital.
Vincent Bolloré during a meeting of the Vivendi group in April 2018 in Paris ERIC PIERMONT AFP / Archives
Vivendi specifies that it "does not intend to implement a squeeze-out on Lagardère at the end of its offer, if the conditions for doing so are met".
He had entered into a shareholders' agreement with Amber Capital on August 10, 2020. The acquisition of Amber's shares by Vivendi will put an end to it.
© 2021 AFP