The chairman of the board of Vivendi Arnaud de Puyfontaine was chosen to represent the media giant on the board of directors of Lagardère, despite competition from the two groups in publishing, according to information from Letter A confirmed by the AFP.
Read also: After the agreement with Bernard Arnault and Vincent Bolloré, Arnaud Lagardère explains himself
Arnaud de Puyfontaine is Chairman of Edit, the Vivendi subsidiary which competes directly with Hachette, the third largest publisher in the world and owned by Lagardère. This decision will be official Friday on the occasion of the publication of the resolutions proposed to the general meeting of June 30, during which the shareholders of Lagardère must approve the transformation of the group into a public limited company. The terms of this project presented at the end of April provide for
“restricting participation in certain deliberations to directors appointed by certain shareholders as long as these shareholders control an activity that competes with those of the group.”
According to AFP information, the Competition Authority will carefully study the possible concentration caused by the change of status at Lagardère, Hachette's parent company, of a network of shops in stations and airports, but also of 'Europe 1,
JDD
and
Paris Match
.
Several nominations to come
Vivendi, Lagardère's largest shareholder with 27% of the shares, must also appoint two independent directors.
For his part, Arnaud Lagardère, who will lose absolute control over the company inherited from his father, will sit for 6 years as the new CEO of the group and can propose two independents, without knowing whether one of these places could be occupied by Nicolas Sarkozy, currently on the supervisory board.
Read also: Vivendi still benefits a little from Universal Music Group
According to press information, Arnaud Lagardère also intends to propose a faithful among the faithful, the current secretary general of the group and future deputy managing director Pierre Leroy, recently CEO of Hachette, as censor (which offers a permanent seat without possibility to participate in council votes).
The Amber Capital fund and the Qatar sovereign wealth fund must each propose a representative, while Bernard Arnault, also a shareholder, will propose an independent director.
The Vivendi group, which is now busy distributing 60% of its Universal Music Group (UMG) nugget to its shareholders (including Vincent Bolloré for 27.39%), subsequently intends to develop around the media (Canal + groups, Havas, Gameloft, Prisma) and publishing.