Vivendi confirms Lagardère takeover bid

Vivendi said on Thursday (9th December) it would buy Amber Capital’s 17.5% stake in the Lagardère group “in the coming days”, bringing its share to 45.1%, and would launch an immediate takeover bid for the group.

The move has come a year earlier than expected, after an initial announcement was made in September. The idea had been to wait until the French and European competition, financial and media regulators had approved the deal. But Vivendi explained that “recent analyses” showed the company could go ahead now without infringing merger control rules. It added it would not exercise its voting rights until it obtained the necessary regulatory authorisations next year.

Vivendi owns France’s second-largest publishing house, Editis; and Lagardère the largest, Hachette Livre.

Before the latest move, other French publishers were already concerned about the implications. The transaction “does not seem possible, both for respecting competition rules and avoiding an abuse of dominance,” Antoine Gallimard, head of Gallimard’s parent company Madrigall, said in an interview on BFM Business television last month. “I expect a lot” from the European Commission’s competition directorate, “which is looking at this affair,” he added.