In an information note to the staff, the parent company explains that he wants to rate the publishing group on the Euronext Growth market. At the end of the operation, the Bolloré group will yield the more than 30 % in block.
The Modus Operandi envisaged by Vivendi to give in its subsidiary Editis, number two of the French edition, a condition for permanently putting your hand on Hachette, begins to clarify. In a confidential information note intended to inform the staff, of which MO12345lemonde became aware of Friday, January 20, at the Social and Economic Committee (CSE), Vivendi details the process of “quotation-distribution” which it intends to implement. And this despite the hostility of Editis’s staff to all stock market.
First of all, Vivendi wants Editis Holding to be listed in Paris on Euronext Growth, a market for SMEs who want to raise capital to finance their growth. This should allow Editis to integrate the first twenty capitalizations of this market, out of the 560 companies listed there and to obtain, according to Vivendi, “much better visibility than on [the regulated market] Euronext Paris”. Another advantage, “regulatory constraints” are “more in line with the nature of these companies, and more flexible”.
For the first time, Vivendi indicates that it has invested “around 334 million euros” in Editis since its acquisition, for 829 million euros, in early 2019. Which includes, “in addition to the buyout of debt (…) , a hundred million euros both in acquisitions of new subsidiaries and participations as in modernization of the Interforum platform [the logistics tool for distributing works] “.
” deposit on The dividend “
Vivendi has indeed bought or created publishing houses such as “the archipelago, the citrus, seguier, philéas, kotoon, noise of the world”, or the digital education platform Educlever, specifies the document . The fifty-three houses of Editis publish nearly 4,000 new features per year.
It is to obtain the effective control of the Lagardère group (and therefore of its subsidiary Hachette) that Vivendi resolved to yield Editis. So renouncing to merge the two main French publishing groups, which the European authorities responsible for competition would undoubtedly refuse. Vivendi holds 57.35 % of the capital of Lagardère, but can only exercise 22.46 % of its voting rights until Brussels has given its green light to this takeover.
The coating-distribution would consist, for Vivendi, to distribute to its shareholders the actions Editis Holding “in the form of a deposit on the Dividend 2022”. “The admission of Editis Holding shares on the Euronext Growth” market would be “requested” simultaneously. Euronext must then approve an information document comprising “the description of risk factors, Editis’ activities, organizational structure, governance, financial situation …”
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