PARIS (Reuters) – Arnaud Lagardère, CEO of Lagardère SA, announced on Tuesday that he was appealing his indictment, which was accompanied by a provisional measure prohibiting him from managing which forces him to resign from his executive mandates at the within the group.
In a press release, Arnaud Lagardère, 63, declares that he contests this indictment which took place Monday evening.
According to a judicial source, it is specified that Arnaud Lagardère was indicted for “dissemination of false or misleading information”, “vote buying”, “abuse of corporate assets and “abuse of power” and “non-deposit of accounts” as part of a judicial investigation opened in April 2021 on the basis in particular of a complaint filed by the Amber Capital fund and a report from the Financial Markets Authority.
The British activist fund Amber Capital is one of the shareholders who strongly contested the governance of Arnaud Lagardère before the takeover of his group by Vivendi last November.
In his press release, Arnaud Lagardère argues that his indictment “essentially concerns facts concerning personal companies belonging entirely to him and not involving any company in the Lagardère group”.
With regard to Lagardère SA, the indictment “only concerns facts dating from 2018 and 2019, qualified as vote buying, abuse of power and dissemination of false and misleading information which it strongly contests”.
Meeting on Tuesday “to decide on the provisional arrangements required to ensure the good governance of the group”, the board of directors of Lagardère SA decided unanimously to “co-opt” Jean-Christophe Thiery as director and to appoint him CEO of the group, it is indicated in a press release published in the evening.
Jean-Christophe Thiery retains his position as chairman of the supervisory board of the Canal+ group, which he has held since 2018, it is specified.
(Written by Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Blandine Hénault and Jean Terzian)
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