The Franco-Lebanese CEO of the shipowner CMA CGM, Rodolphe Saadé, in Marseille on June 27, 2023 (POOL/AFP/Archives/Ludovic MARIN)
Rodolphe Saadé, who will buy Altice Media, tried to reassure staff representatives on Tuesday about jobs and his desire not to directly interfere in the work of the BFMTV and RMC editorial staff, according to participants.
The shipowner CMA CGM of the Franco-Lebanese billionaire made the surprise announcement on Friday of this next purchase, for 1.55 billion euros in cash, from the businessman Patrick Drahi whose group is entangled in a business of corruption and burdened with a colossal debt.
Coming to an extraordinary CSE (social and economic committee) on Tuesday, Mr. Saadé hoped to conclude the operation “in June, at the latest mid-July”, according to reported comments.
“We are a group that is a family”, with “very strong values”, and “we want the employees who join us to share these same values”, he added.
“I want everyone to stay,” he said, expressing his “ambition” for the group and his desire to invest.
A transfer clause, a device allowing you to leave a media outlet with compensation during a change of ownership, will be opened at the beginning of October after the news of the Olympic Games, at the legal minimum so as not to encourage departures.
The powerful shipowner based in Marseille already owns the newspaper La Tribune and the La Provence group (regional dailies La Provence and Corse Matin). He said he was open to “connections” or “complementarities” between La Provence and BFM Marseille, or La Tribune and BFM Business, showing himself attached to “profitability” but without focusing on a specific objective to achieve.
Asked at the end of the meeting about the reaction he would have in the event of one of his media reporting on a hypothetical scandal concerning CMA CGM, Mr. Saadé replied: “I would not react well. And I would make it known.” But “I don’t intervene,” he said.
However, he hoped that the group’s media would not have “an aggressive attitude towards the shareholder”, that is to say his group.
Directed by Marc-Olivier Fogiel, BFMTV is the leader in continuous news in France, closely followed by CNews, a subsidiary of Vivendi, the group of billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
For its part, RMC, which is very focused on sport, is the third general radio station in France. Altice Media also includes the TNT channels RMC Découverte and RMC Story.
© 2024 AFP
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