Stéphane Courbit, Daniel Kretinsky and Pierre-Edouard Sterin ally hoping to acquire the French number two of the edition.
by Nicole Vulser
An offer to three, hoping that union will make strength. The three businessmen Stéphane Courbit, Daniel Kretinsky and Pierre-Edouard Sterin filed at the last minute, Wednesday, February 15, a joint offer from the seller, the Vivendi group, to buy the editis publishing group (Robert Laffont, Plon, Bordas, 10/18…). The Czech billionaire (who holds Marianne magazines, she and Télé 7 Jours and is also a indirect shareholder in the world) was the first to declare that he was interested and initially envisaged solo candidacy.
Stéphane Courbit, the founding audiovisual producer of Banijay and Betclic (sports betting), Daniel Kretinsky and Pierre-Edouard Sterin, the founder of Smartbox allied in the final stretch, according to information from the letter A published Thursday February 16.
The contenders had until February 15 to give their final offer to the three banks – lazard, BNP Paribas and Hottinguer – mandated by the group of Vincent Bolloré. The Italian publisher Mondadori, controlled by the Berlusconi family, the Canadian group Québecor and the Reworld press group would also have made a purchase proposal. Vivendi, just like the candidates, did not wish to make comments.
The Trio Courbit-Kretinsky-Sterin would have agreed that within Editis, any decision was voted unanimously and that a CEO or a CEO of the company’s mission is to guarantee the ‘independence of the 53 publishing houses. Their intention is to give him the means to work, even if it means making new acquisitions.
If Stéphane Courbit wanted to join these two allies, it is undoubtedly also to demonstrate his sincerity as to his desire to ensure the independence of the house. The producer, who proposes to invest individually in Editis, through his company Holding Lov Group, is a friend of Vincent Bolloré. Now Vivendi is already a shareholder up to 19.6 % of the Entilland, the group listed by Mr. Courbit which oversees Banijay and Betclic, which can create a potential situation of conflict of interest.
That being, Pierre-Edouard Sterin corresponds to the profile of the bosses “Bolloré-compatibles” and is often quoted among the supports of Eric Zemmour, underlines the letter A. Catholic, domiciled in Brussels, he invested in the park of Puy du fou of the Villiers family. He recently co-financed the feature film defeated or dying, by Vincent Mottez and Paul Mignot, on the Chouans in Vendée. “Go from Bolloré’s hands to that of support from Puy du Fou and Zemmour, there is something to be afraid of the future,” comments an employee of Editis.
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