It will not wait for Christmas. At least two bids for all of the pôle tv Lagardère group consisting of Gulli , the DTT channels, the most profitable, and the tv channels of Lagardère group as Channel J should be returned this evening to their owner. The string Mezzo has been excluded from the scope of the sale.
Among the potential buyers would be the M6 group, which confirms watch the folder, and an independent group. The TF1 group, which has studied the file, would have decided not to submit an offer.
the amount of the transaction is expected to be around € 150 million, a goal that had set the Lagardère group since the launch of the sale process last June. Contacted, the Lagardère group refuses to comment on the sale process in course.
Thursday, December 20, at the inauguration of the new studio Pierre Bellemare at Europe 1, Arnaud Lagardère was granted an interview with the Letter pro radio in which he has been very clear. “On the tvs, we are in negotiations enough progress on Gulli and other tv channels as well as on the audiovisual production. It is a great refocusing that I decided two years ago and that we are going to continue, our speed, and in the interest of the group” a-t – said.
After the pole tv, there will be more to sell than the audiovisual production -Lagardère Studios – and the string Mezzo. For Lagardère Studios, it will be necessary to wait until the month of January for the submission of tenders. The group Mediawan, co-founded by Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Pierre-Antoine Capton and driven by the latter, is on the ranks. He has never hidden her appetite for this asset, which has a turnover of 180 million euros and product of French fiction that have the wind in their sails at this time.
The Canal+ group is also interested. The strategy of the group led by Maxime Saada is in the process of building a solid group around the production (the Studio Channel is already active is very important), and the distribution of content. Finally, the M6 group is also interested by the folder, who wants to develop in production.
The amount of the sale of Lagardère Studio could exceed 200 million euros.
400 million euros of disposals
Finally, the case of the musical tv channel Mezzo is particular. The chain has long been promised to the LVMH group, whose CEO Bernard Arnaud is a great music lover. Mezzo would also very much Radio Classic, the other assets of the media part of the luxury group. But, the transaction is frozen for the moment. The two parties have not agreed on the price. In addition, Lagardère and LVMH did not want to mix records and they have started to conclude the purchase of the site boursier.com by the group The Echoes, a subsidiary of LVMH, last November.
in The end, the process of disposal of the assets of press and international radio the billionaire Czech Daniel Kretinsky, digital assets and televisions, which has been conducted in one semester and will be reported in the amount of 400 million euros, in line with what the seller had hoped for.
Arnaud Lagard * re has always said that he had the time and it does braderait not its assets. The amount of the disposals will be reinvested in the two remaining activities: publishing with Hachette Livre and travel retail (shops airports).
