Arnaud Lagardère, CEO of the Lagardère group, during his hearing before the commission of inquiry into media concentration at the Senate, in Paris on February 17, 2022 (AFP / JULIEN DE ROSA)
Arnaud Lagardère, forced on Tuesday to resign from his mandate as director of the group that bears his name after an indictment, is the heir to a French aeronautical and media empire, of which he gradually lost control, before being caught up by justice.
This withdrawal comes the day after a long interrogation by financial investigating judges, who suspect him of having drawn from the accounts of his companies to finance his lifestyle and personal expenses for several years, which he disputes.
His indictment, in particular for “abuse of corporate assets”, was accompanied by a “management ban”, according to a judicial source, forcing him to hand over the reins of his company.
Jean-Christophe Thiery, 56, chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Canal+ Group, now temporarily replaces him.
This is the last episode of the long series which saw Arnaud Lagardère, 63, lose his aura and over the years close down the group founded in 1992 by his father Jean-Luc, architect of the merger between the aircraft manufacturer Matra and the publisher Hachette.
Bernard Arnault (G) in Paris on June 15, 2023 and Vincent Bolloré in Paris on January 19, 2022 (AFP / Ludovic MARIN)
Through the media giant Vivendi, the Bolloré family finalized its takeover of the Lagardère house at the end of 2023, owner in particular of a profitable network of stores in train stations and airports (Relay brands, Duty Free stores) and meeting rooms. famous shows (Casino de Paris, Folies Bergère…), but also media like Europe 1 and Le Journal du Dimanche.
This operation was made possible by the change in the legal status of the company, which moved in 2021 from a share sponsorship to a limited company, causing Arnaud Lagardère to lose his absolute control over the group.
Arnaud Lagardère and his wife Jade Foret at the Cannes Film Festival on May 24, 2017 (AFP / LOIC VENANCE)
Riddled with debt, notably via his personal holding company, at the heart of an investigation opened by the national financial prosecutor’s office, the Lagardère son did not really have a choice.
He managed to officially remain at the head of the group with a six-year mandate and in November 2023 even became the CEO of Hachette Livre, its subsidiary specializing in publishing.
– Gravedigger of paternal ambitions –
“Arnaud Lagardère received a daisy from which he tore off the petals year after year,” says Yves Sabouret, one of his ex-lieutenants.
Gravedigger of his father’s ambitions, Arnaud Lagardère has nevertheless spent his entire career within the family group, which he joined in 1986, after obtaining an economics diploma.
Jean-Luc Lagardère during the Cité de la Réussite at the Sorbonne University in Paris on October 19, 2002 (AFP / JEAN-PIERRE MULLER)
Three years later, he was promoted to general manager, then left for the United States, to head the recently acquired encyclopedia publisher Grolier, to look for growth opportunities in digital media.
He earned his stripes as a manager across the Atlantic, adopting “American managerial culture with very direct, sometimes brutal relationships”, analyzes journalist Thierry Gadault, author of the book “Arnaud Lagardère, the insolent” for AFP ( Maren Sell).
When Jean-Luc Lagardère suddenly died following surgery on March 14, 2003, his only son succeeded him.
– Dilettante and casual –
Often brought back to his status as a well-born child, the new leader broke with his father’s adventure in aeronautics and defense. He sold the group’s shares in EADS, the parent company of Airbus, for more than 2 billion euros.
“Arnaud has always been wary of this world”, due to troubled links between the political establishment and the defense industries, explains Mr. Gadault. On the other hand, he manages his group “exactly as his father did” and “considers that he does not have to interfere in the daily management of business owners, in whom he places his trust”.
Arnaud Lagardère and Jade Foret during the match between Estonian Jurgen Zopp and Richard Gasquet at Roland Garros, May 29, 2012 (AFP / PATRICK KOVARIK)
Others see this distance from daily affairs as the sign of a dilettante and casual boss, a reputation that still sticks to him.
Arnaud Lagardère has also adopted the style of the modern entrepreneur by appearing relaxed with his wife, the model Jade Foret, 30 years his junior, on social networks and in a film shot in 2011 for a Belgian magazine.
This tennis enthusiast saw his personal adventure in sports business (marketing rights, representation of athletes, TV rights), an activity in which he invested more than a billion euros.
Alas, turnover did not take off, the 2008 crisis pushed clubs and federations to manage their rights themselves and the premature termination of an agency contract with the Confederation of African Football sounded the death knell of this diversification.