On Wednesday September 15, the Paris headquarters of the Lagardère company was raided Tuesday as part of a judicial investigation opened in April relating to a dispute between the Lagardère group and its shareholder the Amber Capital fund, said the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, confirming Point information.
The case was sparked by a complaint for "vote buying", "abuse of company property", "inaccurate accounts" and "false or misleading information" filed in April 2021, by the Amber fund, shareholder of the Lagardère group.
The Amber fund criticized the Lagardère group for having acted to counter the resolutions submitted by Amber Capital at the Lagardère general meeting in May 2018. At that time, the Amber fund challenged Arnaud Lagardère's management and requested positions to the board of directors. All his requests were rejected and the fund demanded access to the documents of the GA. He had taken legal action which forced the Lagardère group to provide these documents. It is on this basis that the fund headed by Joseph Oughourlian filed a complaint in April 2021.
But at the end of April 2021 all the shareholders of the Lagardère group (including the Amber fund) reached an agreement to change the rules of governance of the group. In exchange, the Amber fund (which now has a representative on Lagardère's board of directors) dropped its complaint. But justice is continuing its investigation.