Our offer "is at the price of the two expertises, which indeed are around this price" of 20 million euros, confirmed to AFP Xavier Niel, the founder of Free Telecom, already a shareholder of La Provence to the tune of 11 %, after the opening of the envelopes at the Commercial Court of Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis).
In addition to these two candidates, who had already made themselves known before the official closing of this second call for tenders, two other offers were submitted, for the symbolic amount of one euro, one from certain employees of the press and the other from a private person.
The employees' offer "was symbolic", told AFP Me Catherine Swarcz, lawyer for three of the six CSEs (social and economic committee) of the La Provence group: "We wanted to be present at the opening of the offers. It is a subject of great anxiety for the 850 employees", she underlined.
CMA-CGM and NJJ, Xavier Niel's holding company, were the only two candidates in the running during the first call for tenders, which closed at the end of November.
But these envelopes have never been opened.
For this second call for tenders, the candidates had until noon Monday to submit their applications under sealed envelope, at the registry of the commercial court of Bobigny, in charge of the liquidation of Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT), the holding company of the former businessman and ex-president of Olympique de Marseille, who died in October.
CMA-CGM, a global maritime transport giant based in Marseille, confirmed on Friday its candidacy for the takeover of the main press group in the south-east of France, via a statement from its boss, Rodolphe Saadé, to AFP .
The entry into the running of NJJ had it been confirmed Monday to AFP, by Mr. Niel himself.
The founder of Free Telecom, who is also an individual shareholder in Le Monde, also owns the regional daily Nice-Matin, via NJJ.
© 2022 AFP