Rodolphe Saadé poised to win La Provence against Xavier Niel
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After a year of fierce struggle, the belligerents decided to sign the armistice. CMA-CGM, the group of Rodolphe Saadé, announced on Tuesday August 30 that it had reached an agreement with NJJ, the personal holding company of Xavier Niel (personal shareholder of Le Monde) on Provence. The latter finally agrees to sell the 11% he holds in the regional daily, leaving the shipowner alone in the running to win 89% of the capital in the hands of the group in judicial liquidation of Bernard Tapie, passed away in October 2021. This agreement puts an end to all ongoing legal proceedings. The Bobigny court must decide on the final transfer of the title on September 30.
“I welcome this agreement. It will allow us to work with all the employees of La Provence and Corse Matin to implement our development and recovery project.”, said Rodolphe Saadé in a message sent to Le Monde. This surprise epilogue took the newspaper’s employees by surprise, who expected to see the conflict bog down for months more. “We are between the relief of finally having prospects and amazement. We are almost surprised that it ends like this”reacts Eric Breton, secretary of the social and economic committee (CSE).
We could make a link between this press release and Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Algeria attended by Xavier Niel and Rodolphe Saadé. In reality, it was the judicial liquidator, Marc Sénéchal, who took the initiative at the beginning of the summer to bring the two billionaires around the table, sending them the following message: without prejudging its outcome, the ongoing legal battle could last ten years. In the meantime, the newspaper may have shut down. For his part, the judicial liquidator was ready to fight in court to have the right of approval that Xavier Niel had in La Provence and which allowed him to block the operation cancelled. It thus allowed Rodolphe Saadé to win the battle insofar as the latter had made an offer of 80 million euros, well above the valuations of the experts who ranged, from a good source, from 25 to 45 million euros. euros.
A joint printing press
The founder of Free, who faced opposition from part of the editorial staff and that of the current CEO, Jean-Christophe Serfati, support of Rodolphe Saadé, resolved to give way. Not without pocketing a small bonus. While he had constantly said in private that a loss-making newspaper was worth nothing, he obtained for his 11% a price higher than the 9 million valued by the 80 million proposed by Rodolphe Saadé for 89% of the capital. A sum that seems derisory for the shipowner, whose group should make a profit of 15 billion euros in the first half of 2022.
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