Lagardère-Amber fund case: the Lagardère headquarters searched Tuesday

The Paris headquarters of the company Lagardère was raided on Tuesday as part of a judicial investigation opened in April on a dispute between the group and its shareholder, the Amber Capital fund, the national financial prosecutor's office (PNF) said on Wednesday.

The investigating judges ordered this search as part of the judicial investigation opened in April 2021 of the heads, in particular, of "vote buying", "abuse of social property", "inaccurate account "And" false or misleading information ", depending on the source, confirming information from Le Point.

Contested governance

In the spring, Arnaud Lagardère, 60, had to give in to the powerful shareholders of the multinational, including Vincent Bolloré, Bernard Arnault and the British fund Amber Capital, who challenged his governance.

He was threatened with blockage and faced with the economic difficulties of his group - owner of Hachette Livre and several media including radio Europe 1 and the weekly Paris Match - during the pandemic.

The transformation project, presented at the end of April and validated at the end of June at a general meeting, put an end to the atypical status of the group limited by shares, which made the heir of Jean-Luc Lagardère unbreakable although very much in the minority.

Arnaud Lagardère obtained by this agreement a position of CEO for six years.

Bolloré vs Arnauld

Before this outcome, the struggle for influence had lasted for months between Vincent Bolloré (Vivendi) allied to the Amber Capital fund, and the CEO of LVMH (owner of the Le Parisien / Les Echos group), Bernard Arnault.

This fight had led Amber Capital, initiator of the rebellion against governance, to file a complaint with the PNF, in February according to Le Monde, in a guerrilla war which had already taken legal detours on several occasions.

But on the occasion of the signing of the transformation project at the end of April, Lagardère had signed a “transactional agreement” with Amber Capital which was supposed to put an end to the various legal proceedings which had opposed them for years.

The PNF, however, took up the complaint of Amber Capital and opened a judicial investigation the same month.

Lagardère does not comment

On Wednesday, Lagardère declined to comment on the information from the search.

When Le Monde announced the existence of this investigation in July, the group said in a statement that it "respect (d) the law and vigorously defend itself against any contrary allegation".

"Lagardère SA finally deplores the leak into the press of information which would result from an investigation procedure, in disregard of the secrecy of the investigation which is protected under criminal law and has asked its counsel to initiate any legal proceedings as a result of this violation, ”the statement added.