The lying poker game around the Lagardère group continued last night, with the early renewal of Arnaud Lagardère’s mandate as manager, less than a week after the announcement of an alliance between Vivendi and Amber Capital to attempt to weaken it. “The supervisory board approved the renewal of the mandate of manager of Mr. Arnaud Lagardère for a period of four years from August 17, 2020”, writes the group in its press release.
An unusual duration, however, since previous renewals were made over a period of six years.
The decision comes less than a week after the formation of an alliance between the two main shareholders of the group, Vivendi and the investment fund Amber Capital, to ask for four seats on the board of directors of Lagardère and the convening of a general meeting at the start of the school year.
For the first two shareholders, the aim was to strengthen their position with a view to the renewal of Arnaud Lagardère’s mandate as manager, initially scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.
Asked by AFP, neither Amber Capital nor Vivendi reacted on Monday evening.
In his press release, Lagardère justifies his choice by the need to “stabilize the governance of the group in an unprecedented period”. Lagardère saw its half-year results deteriorate sharply due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, plunging into the red in the first half of the year, in particular due to a collapse in its Travel Retail activity, which concerns distribution in places of transport (stations and airports).
At the same time as the renewal of the mandate of its manager, the group is setting up a “management board” made up of the five members of the executive board as well as the two managers of Lagardère Publishing and Lagardère Travel Retail. Management also presented a “strategic road map” to deal with the crisis. It involves an “adaptation of the concession model to gain agility and flexibility” concerning Travel Retail, and an offensive attitude on the publishing side, for which the group intends to take advantage of “numerous short-term consolidation opportunities”.
This strengthening of management appears to be a response to the pact announced on August 11 by Vivendi and Amber Capital, which respectively hold 23.5% and 20% of Lagardère’s capital and wished to take steps to have representation on the supervisory board. minority, three members for Amber Capital and one member for Vivendi.
Amber Capital has never ceased to repeat its desire to “solicit the appointment of one or more members to the supervisory board”, and to work for the transformation into a public limited company of Lagardère, currently under limited partnership status.
This atypical status allows the boss and heir of the company, Arnaud Lagardère (general partner), to retain control with only around 7% of the capital. In return, he is liable indefinitely for the debts of the company on his own property. Vivendi, for its part, initially acquired a 10% stake in the group to save Arnaud Lagardère’s stake against Amber at the general meeting in May, strengthened its position over the summer and gradually approached the fund.
The alliance between Amber and Vivendi was officially motivated by “the very poor financial results” of the Lagardère group. At the same time, however, it made it possible to mutually reinforce the two players in the face of the influence of Bernard Arnault, the billionaire at the head of the luxury group LVMH. The latter had announced at the end of May come to pay off part of Arnaud Lagardère’s debts against 25% of the shares of the personal holding company of the heir.
This surprise arrival had called into question the hope of several shareholders to see things evolve rapidly within governance, and allows Mr. Arnault to become essential for any strategic decision affecting the activities of Lagardère SCA, in particular the disposals of active.
–
