After a year of fierce struggle, the belligerents decided to sign the armistice. CMA-CGM, the group of Rodolphe Saadé, announced on Tuesday August 30 that it had reached an agreement with NJJ, the personal holding company of Xavier Niel (personal shareholder of the Monde), concerning the press group La Provence. Mr. Niel finally agrees to sell the 11% he holds there, leaving the shipowner alone in the running to take 89% of the capital from the hands of the group in judicial liquidation of Bernard Tapie, who died in October 2021. This agreement puts an end all pending legal proceedings. The Bobigny court must decide on the final sale of the group on September 30.
“I welcome this agreement. It will allow us to work with all the employees of Provence and of Corse-Matin [du groupe La Provence] to the implementation of our development and recovery project”said Rodolphe Saadé in a message sent to the Monde. This surprise epilogue took the employees of La Provence by surprise, who expected to see the conflict bog down for months more. “We are between the relief of finally having prospects and amazement. We are almost surprised that it ends like this”reacted Eric Breton, secretary of the social and economic committee (CSE).
We could make a link between this press release and Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Algeria, in which Xavier Niel and Rodolphe Saadé participated. In reality, it was the judicial liquidator, Marc Sénéchal, who took the initiative at the beginning of the summer to bring the two billionaires around the table by sending them the following message: without prejudging its outcome, the battle current judicial process could last ten years. In the meantime, La Provence may have gone out of business. For his part, the judicial liquidator was ready to fight in court to have the right of approval that Xavier Niel had in the group and which allowed him to block the operation canceled. It thus allowed Rodolphe Saadé to win the battle insofar as the latter had made an offer of 80 million euros, well above the valuations of the experts who ranged, from a good source, from 25 to 45 million euros. euros.
A joint printing press
The founder of Free, who faced opposition from part of the editorial staff and that of the current CEO of La Provence, Jean-Christophe Serfati, support of Rodolphe Saadé, resolved to give way. Not without pocketing a small bonus. While he had constantly said in private that a loss-making newspaper was worth nothing, he obtained for his 11% a price higher than the 9 million valued by the 80 million proposed by Rodolphe Saadé for 89% of the capital. A sum that seems derisory for the shipowner, whose group should make a profit of 15 billion euros in the first half of 2022.
You have 31.95% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.