” May the best win ! » Asked by The world the occasion of a portrait dedicated to him on 1er February, Rodolphe Saadé did not minimize his determination to acquire 89% of the capital of Provence, to be seized following the liquidation of the Bernard Tapie group. ” The best “, in other words the highest bidder, since the specifications for this call for tenders, the second since October 2021, made the price offered a determining factor. By putting 81 million euros on the table, Tuesday February 15 before the Bobigny commercial court (Seine-Saint-Denis), the boss of the shipping company CMA CGM logically saw his preferred offer to that of Xavier Niel , stopped at around twenty million euros. Two other offers, one from an individual, the other from the employees themselves, for an amount of one euro, were purely symbolic.
While the possibility was offered to him, the founder of Free and individual shareholder of the Worldholder, through a subsidiary of its NJJ holding company, of the last 11% of the capital of Provence, did not wish to outbid. An attitude that it would be very risky to equate with a step back. In a press release sent at the end of the afternoon, NJJ Presse Sud indicated that it would soon present the details of its offer to the employees and their representatives, “in order to give them a more precise vision of the guarantees that would be given, the investments that will be made and the development prospects” accompanying its offer.
In fact, in Marseille, we are much more informed of the social and industrial commitments of the CMA CGM, these having been detailed several times to the employees. Namely: maintenance of employment and refusal of any plan to safeguard employment for Provence as for Corse-Morning, replacement of departures, maintenance of the headquarters in Marseilles, start-up of a printing press equipped with two rotary presses as close as possible to the Stade-Vélodrome, investments in digital technology or even editorial independence guaranteed by charter. To the 81 million of the takeover offer (including 8 million of current account), the shipowner has promised to add 35 million of investments, “an amount never seen before Provence »rejoices an employee.
“Importance of the social component”
In an open letter released last week, several works councils (CSE) and trade unions in the group expressed their fear that the liquidators, Marc Sénéchal and Xavier Brouard, were determined to repay part of the debts left to the Treasury by Bernard Tapie, neglect to consider these prospects and the 850 jobs concerned. “If we understand the challenge for the State to recover the sums owed to it, they wrote, we urge him to take into account, in return, the social issue of this file by affirming the importance of the social aspect, the only guarantee of the preservation of jobs in our regions. »
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