Lagardère SA and Hachette Livre chairman Arnaud Lagardère sells shares to pay off debts

Arnaud Lagardère, chairman and c.e.o. of the Lagardère SA and subsidiary Hachette Livre, has sold some of his shares to parent company Vivendi to pay off his debts, the French daily Le Figaro has reported.

The son of Lagardère founder Jean-Luc now holds just 5.12% of the capital in Lagardère SA and 4.49% of the voting rights, according to his declaration to the financial regulator Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) earlier this month.

Lagardère also notified the AMF that he had sold shares in his personal holding company, Lagardère Capital, reducing his stake to 4.14% and voting rights to 3.76%.

Lagardère told Le Figaro that he had sold his shares to get rid of his debts, and that these would “soon be zero".

Le Monde reported that Lagardère had told investigating magistrates Virginie Tilmont and Marie-Cartherine Idiart that he had always lived beyond his means and that this situation “could not continue". Le Monde also reported that he had negotiated a deal at the end of April to pay €50m to the French tax authorities before the end of May.

Vivendi, whose main shareholder is the billionaire businessman, Vincent Bolloré, took over the Lagardère Group in November 2023. Lagardère was indicted at the end of April for vote buying, abuse of power and dissemination of false or misleading information and was temporarily banned from office. 

Lagardère resumed his duties as group chief at the end of June of this year.