A twist in the Marseille city.
After nearly a year of fierce battle to buy the group La Provence
(La Provence, Corse Matin)
, Rodolphe Saadé has finally won the game against his rival Xavier Niel.
The shipowner CMA-CGM seizes the 89% of shares held by the Bernard Tapie Group (GBT) in La Provence, but also the 11% of the capital held by the boss of Free through his holding company NJJ.
Faced with an endless recovery file that had been bogged down for months in multiple twists and legal actions, the judicial administrator Marc Sénéchal decided at the beginning of the summer to have Rodolphe Saadé and Xavier sit around the same table. Niel in an effort to break the deadlock.
It took nearly two months for the two businessmen to finally get along.
"
I am sincerely delighted that through direct and constructive dialogue, we have been able to find a solution in recent weeks that satisfies all parties and preserves everyone's interests
", comments for Le Figaro Marc Sénéchal.
Read alsoLa Provence: the sale of the newspaper to CMA-CGM postponed to September 30
Rodolphe Saadé, determined to afford his first assets in the press, will pay the tidy sum of 81 million euros to afford 89% of the capital of Provence, four times more than the estimated valuation.
A boon for the judicial liquidators, who seek to repay the State the debt of 400 million euros left by the late Bernard Tapie.
The boss of CMA-CGM thus buys back the shares of NJJ in the capital of La Provence for around 10 million euros.
A joint printing press
In addition, CMA-CGM and NJJ have also agreed on a project to create a jointly controlled and financed company, with the aim of developing a new printing plant located in the Var.
The latter having vocation to print by the end of the year 2024 the newspaper La Provence and the newspaper Nice-Matin, property of Xavier Niel.
The Marseille shipowner thus chose to abandon his project to build a printing press in Marseille, dedicated solely to printing La Provence.
From now on, the Board of Directors of La Provence, which will meet in the coming days, will have to validate the transfer of NJJ shares to CMA-CGM, and therefore the final exit of Xavier Niel from the capital of La Provence.
The members of the Board will also have to give their approval to the sale of the shares of the late Bernard Tapie in the press group.
Then, the supervising judge of the Bobigny court, in charge of the case, will have to record the final sale of the press group to CMA-CGM no later than September 30.
“
The completion of the operations thus planned will be accompanied by the end of the legal proceedings in progress
”, specifies CMA CGM and NJJ in their joint press release.