Xavier Niel escorted to door of “Provence”

Venu to Marseille, Wednesday, March 2, with the intention of meeting part of the staff representatives, the press group’s minority shareholder was put out by the CEO of everyday life.

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A discussion starter with staff representatives, a severe snap with the Journal Chairman, Jean-Christophe Serfati, who summoned him to leave the places, Xavier Niel will have only ten minutes, Wednesday, March 2, inside the premises of Provence, daily of which he is a minority shareholder (11% of the capital). Econduced, the founder of Free (and individual shareholder of the world), however, continued his morning discussions in contiguous premises at the company, with union elected officials wishing to hear what he had to say.

The episode, hectic and quite surrealist, is part of the merciless struggle that Xavier Niel and the boss of the CMA CGM shipowner, Rodolphe Saadé, for the redemption of the 89% of the actions of Provence owned by Bernard Tapie, died in October 2021. On February 15, following the second call for tenders launched by the judicial liquidators of the group of the deceased businessman, the Bobigny court validated The CMA CGM offer as well-saying.

A new argument

At the 20 million euros put on the table by NJJ, the holding of Mr. Niel, Rodolphe Saadé responded by a proposal to purchase 81 million euros, or double the best expertise. Since then, its project of recovery of the newspaper, with the maintenance of a printing press in Marseille and promise to invest between € 12 and 20 million in the development of the group, has gained the support of a portion of employees and union representatives . For its part, the Tribunal de Marseille estimated on February 24 that only the best-raising offer should be presented to employees as part of the legal consultation procedure, bringing a new argument to opponents of Xavier Niel.

Wednesday, the boss of FREE, however, had to be able to detail “his looks of a minority shareholder” to the staff delegates. At 9:45, arrived with Anthony Maarek, Managing Director of NJJ and group representative in the southeast, Xavier Niel displays a big smile: “I did not come to present my offer, I come to meet the Employees of Provence. They asked me to expose what I intend to do in the long term, “he says before entering the log enclosure.

On the forecourt, some representatives of the staff express their hostility at the sight of a shareholder of which they distinguish “contempt”. “He comes now because he is worried. At the time of the call for tenders, we asked him to present his project, he always ignored us,” Grinte Jean-Paul Frauziol, Secretary of the EUROSUD CSE , the publicity subsidiary of Provence. “Its offer has been estimated by justice. By coming today, it disrupts the legal process, explains Osam Edhahbi, representative of the CSE of South Press Distribution. He will listen to him if he submits an offer at the time of his right Preemption. “As a minority shareholder, he can buy the newspaper on the condition of aligning with the best offer, which he no longer enters. “Niel thinks about justice. These are thug methods,” Isabelle Lucioni, Delegate Force Ouvrière in Corse-Morning.

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/Media reports.