Arnaud Lagardère seeks to remain in control of his radios, despite Vivendi's takeover bid

According to one of the avenues considered, the stations could be "grouped under a partnership limited by shares" controlled by Arnaud Lagardère, who in 2021 had lost full powers over the group bearing his name.

The operations must "be financially neutral for the Lagardère group" and validated by the summer of 2022 by the Board of Directors, before being submitted to the staff representative bodies, as well as to the competent authorities, for their possible authorizations. or approvals, said the latter.

The atypical status of limited partnership by shares is a bulwark against shareholder takeovers, which gives the general partners almost total power over the group, even if they only hold a small part of the capital.

Arnaud Lagardère, who after the death of his father Jean-Luc became manager-general partner of Lagardère, had only accepted the transformation of his group after a long shareholder struggle and in exchange for significant financial compensation (approximately 7% of capital, around 210 million euros at the time of the agreement) allowing him to reduce his heavy personal debt.

Vincent Bolloré, at the helm of Vivendi, entered the capital of Lagardère a year ago and has never hidden his interest in Europe 1 ERIC PIERMONT AFP / Archives

Vincent Bolloré, at the helm of Vivendi, entered the capital of Lagardère a year ago and has never hidden his interest in Europe 1, which he tries to associate with his conservative news channel CNews (Canal + group) .

This project has since aroused great concern among the station's journalists' unions, whose audiences are at their lowest.

At the group's last general meeting, Arnaud Lagardère reaffirmed his intention to retain control of his media (also including the press titles Paris Match and the JDD), which he had recently refused to sell to billionaire Bernard Arnault.

Owner of 45% of Lagardère shares, Vivendi saw its proposed offer approved by the Financial Markets Authority in mid-April.

This OPA will lead him in particular to get his hands on the leader of French publishing, Hachette Livre, which he intends to marry to his own publishing group, Editis.

© 2022 AFP