Light the fire… How many times did Johnny Hallyday sing it in front of the ecstatic audience at Bercy? Today, it is between the two shareholders of this great Parisian room that the fire is lit, the hatchet unearthed. After years of increasingly clear differences, the two co-owners of the Accor Arena, but also of the Bataclan and the Arena under construction at Porte de La Chapelle, in the north of the capital, are now in open conflict. Justice is seized. A first decision was rendered on March 17 by the Paris court.
On the one hand, the Paris City Hall, which has owned the walls of the Accor Arena since its inception and holds the majority of the site’s operating company. On the other, the AEG conglomerate, one of the world leaders in the concert industry, owned by the very conservative American billionaire Philip Anschutz, 82. The two partners have been partners since 2013. At the time, the Town Hall thought that the new American shareholder, chosen to “its experience and know-how in the organization of sporting events and shows”, was going to contribute to stimulating the activity of the Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy (POPB), renamed Accor Arena after a complete renovation. Nine years later, the result is not there.
Perhaps the imbroglio was tied from the start, when the former mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë opened the doors to Philip Anschutz and AEG took 32% of the semi-public company that manages the POPB. The Americans then believed, or wanted to believe, that the Town Hall would eventually leave them the keys to the house. The group is not used to remaining a minority shareholder. In general, he fully controls all his activities, in a logic of vertical integration: AEG manages the tours of stars like the Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift or Shawn Mendes, puts them in the rooms he owns, looks for himself the necessary sponsors, etc.
One wants to buy, the other refuses
In Paris, Philip Anschutz hoped to set up this type of scheme. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, AEG climbed to the capital of the semi-public company, taking over the shares of Caisse des dépôts, then injecting some 10 million euros to bail out the company, victim of the health crisis and the sudden cessation of concerts linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. From 32%, the group has thus risen to almost 48% of the capital of the POPB company. Its leaders would have liked to pass the 50% mark.
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