By offering these newspapers, the shipowner, located in Marseille, made a remarkable entry into the media world. Rodolphe Saadé is also in the running for the resumption of the M6 channel, within a team led by Stéphane Courbit.
Le Monde with AFP
This is the end of several months of suspense. The Bobigny Commercial Court validated, Friday, September 30, the redemption of the La Provence press group by the CMA CGM shipowner, one of the world’s giants of maritime transport, for 81 million euros. The decision was expected after the agreement with its competitor Xavier Niel, founder of Free and shareholder on an individual basis of the world.
“We authorize the transfer for the benefit of the company CMA CGM (…) of 89 % of the shares composing the capital of La Provence [which were held by the Bernard Tapie group, in judicial liquidation]”, writes the court trade in its order, consulted by the France-Presse agency (AFP).
Almost a year after the death of the businessman then a long battle in court, CMA CGM and Xavier Niel’s group having long torn apart for control of the flagship of the Southern Press From France, the shipowner takes orders for a group which has eight hundred and fifty employees and publishes the daily La Provence and Corse-Matin.
By offering these newspapers, CMA CGM, established in Marseille, made a remarkable entry into the media world. The appetite of the shipowner does not stop there, since Rodolphe Saadé, its president and CEO (CEO), is also in the running for the resumption of the M6 channel, within a team led by Stéphane Courbit ( FL Entertainment).
“Surretenance of titles”
“I am delighted with this decision which comes to close several months of work and intense mobilization of all the parties”, praised in a press release the liquidator of the Bernard Tapie group, Marc Sénéchal.
“This is excellent news for the CSE [social and economic committees] and unions that I represent and which, since the start of the procedure, have been fighting for the CMA offer to be chosen,” also reacted to AFP lawyer Catherine Szwarc. “Only this offer guarantees the sustainability of the titles La Provence and Corse-Matin, only this offer guarantees the maintenance of jobs and the development of the company,” she said.
Relief also on the unions side: “We have a lot of hope and a lot of expectations. This period of uncertainty has put the business into great difficulty, so we are delighted with the arrival of this new shareholder after Ten years of inertia under the Tapie era, “reacted to AFP Sophie Manelli, delegate of the National Syndicate of Journalists (SNJ) in Provence. “We are now awaiting the appointment of a new editorial director,” continues the trade unionist, warning against a reproduction of “errors of the past with snoring names”. “We must take precedence over the competence and knowledge of the regional daily press, that the skills of journalists can again express themselves. We need to turn a page, you have to go fast to breathe.” it adds.
agreement between Rodolphe Saadé and Xavier Niel
The Commercial Court’s decision constitutes the epilogue of a judicial showdown which has opposed two billionaires for months: Mr. Saadé and Mr. Niel, who already holds shares in several media (Nice-Matin, Le Monde…).
It was expected since the two groups had announced, at the end of August, to have signed a buyout agreement by the CMA CGM of all the titles (11 %) held by NJJ, the holding of Mr. Niel, in the capital of the La Provence group.
The agreement also provides for the creation of a joint venture in order to “develop a new printing in the Var”. The latter “is intended, by the end of 2024, to ensure the impression of the whole” of the titles of the La Provence group, excluding Corse-Presse, and the regional daily Nice-Matin, owned by Mr. Niel, had specified the interested parties in a joint press release.
At the end of a second call for tenders launched in February, only the CMA CGM takeover project had been retained by the judicial coliacators, because “better”, at 81 million euros, against 20 million For that of Mr. Niel. This offer had also been validated by the six CSE of the company. CMA CGM also recovers the “current account opened in [its] books for an indicative amount of 8.1 million euros at 1 er January 2022″.