Arnaud Lagardère reveals his level of debt

Pressed by justice, and while he is in a delicate configuration at the head of the group he chairs, Arnaud Lagardère finally filed last Tuesday with the registry the accounts for the last seven years of his personal holding, Lagardère Capital & Management (LCM).

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According to AFP, the latter report, in 2019, a loss of 79 million euros, in particular due to the depreciation of LCM's 7.26% stake in the Lagardère group, and debt financial corresponding to a loan from Crédit Agricole of 164 million euros, in accordance with what the heir of Jean-Luc Lagardère had disclosed at the beginning of the year to the magazine Le Point .

However, the total amount of LCM indebtedness is larger. It actually amounts to 214 million euros if other loans are taken into account. Noting this situation, perhaps alarmed by the difficulty for Arnaud Lagardère to settle his debts, the auditor's report notes that “it could be considered to settle” this debt, in particular by organizing a distribution of dividends to the following the arrival in May 2020 of Bernard Arnault in LCM.

Already rescued, at the level of the Lagardère group, by Vincent Bolloré (Vivendi) and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière to repel the repeated assaults of the activist fund Amber - which required the publication of its accounts -, Arnaud Lagardère has indeed also appealed to the CEO of LVMH to extricate itself personally. Negotiations are still ongoing, but Bernard Arnault could take 26.7% of LCM for 100 million euros. Three quarters of the sum could lighten the debt burden of the general manager.