In a document produced with the Cabinet SECAFI Alpha, staff representatives plead for a 100 % transfer of the number two of the edition to a single buyer and oppose the diagram advocated by the current owner, Vivendi.
by Nicole Vulser
Before the planned announcement of the new buyer of Editis – which Vivendi, his current owner, promises before the end of January -, the recommendations of the staff representatives for candidates for the buyout arrive at the right time.
In a confidential document produced with the Cabinet Secafi Alpha and already presented to their management, the employees of the French number two of the edition (Le Robert, 10/18, Plon …) want to “secure the future of Editis With a single buyer, which takes up the entire perimeter, without an introduction on the stock market, neither Leverage Buy-Out [LBO, redemption using a lot of debt], nor investment funds “. They aspire to be “away from any short-termist strategy and any stock market and financial speculation”.
By pleading for a 100 % editis sale, they therefore oppose Vivendi head on, who wishes to give in the company according to a “quotation-distribution” scheme, simultaneously putting the house on the stock market edition and selling the shares held by Vincent Bolloré (29.6 %) to a reference shareholder. This choice must be validated by the competition authorities of the European Commission, who will give or not their green light to the public purchasing offer (OPA) that Vivendi launched, in February 2022, on the Lagardère group, in order to Take control of Hachette, the world’s number three edition.
Echaudés, since they have already changed owners five times in twenty years, the employees hope that the buyer will have real financial solidity and a “demonstrated investment capacity, in line with Editis’ development issues, With a long-term commitment (beyond ten years) “. Michèle Benbunan, Managing Director of Editis, said, in an interview with the world, on July 6, that Vivendi had invested 50 million euros in the group in three years.
If a foreign investor is chosen – the Italian Mondadori being still on the track -, the employees then ask to “reserve at least 25 % of the capital to a French institutional investor”, like Bpifrance or the Caisse des Dépôts. As part of a fairer distribution, they also offer to allocate “5 % to 10 % of capital to employees under preferential access conditions”, while associating them financially and equitably with the success of the project business. This would include “a sale premium” (3 % of the sale price), which would be redistributed to the staff of the company.
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