Vivendi announces a takeover bid for Lagardère, through the acquisition of Amber Capital’s shares in the group – archyworldys

The Vivendi group, controlled by Vincent Bolloré, announced on Wednesday September 15 that it intended to acquire the nearly 18% stake of the Amber Capital fund in the Lagardère group, and its intention to file a draft public offer of purchase (OPA) to acquire the remainder of the group that owns Hachette and Europe 1.

The operation announced at a price per share of 24.10 euros, i.e. around 20% premium over the current price, is subject to the authorization of several authorities, including the Superior Audiovisual Council and the European Commission, due to the risks of concentration in the publishing and media sectors. Vivendi is giving itself until December 15, 2022 to carry it out.

With Amber’s share, Vivendi would end up owning 45% of the capital and 36% of the voting rights of Lagardère, forcing it to file a public offer on the remaining shares. The other main shareholders are Arnaud Lagardère, Bernard Arnault (Financière Agache) and the Qatar sovereign fund.

Consequence of the end of sponsorship status

” In accordance with the agreements made on August 10, 2020, Amber Capital informed Vivendi that it wished to sell all of its Lagardère shares and invited Vivendi to make a purchase offer ”, Vivendi wrote in a press release, before specifying that “The signing of this contract does not affect the shareholder agreements which have been concluded by the main shareholders of Lagardère with a view to its transformation into a public limited company”.

At the end of April, the Lagardère group had announced the end of the company’s sponsorship status, which gave Arnaud Lagardère exclusive management power. The son of Jean-Luc Lagardère, who had decided on this structure in 1992 to prevent any takeover bid on his group, had agreed to give it up in exchange for 10 million shares in the company and has since held the position of CEO of the new anonimous society. Arnaud Lagardère had thus increased his stake in the group – from 7% to 14% – but opened the right to massive share buybacks between shareholders, such as that now planned by Vivendi.

“This sale marks the culmination of a long process and an investment strategy whose objectives have been achieved”, said in a separate statement Olivier Fortesa, managing partner of Amber Capital, the British fund which initiated the sling against the governance of Lagardère. “We have every confidence in the ability of Vivendi, which is one of the largest French industrial players, to continue the group’s development in all of its businesses”, added Joseph Oughourlian, founder of Amber Capital.