Employees of the La Provence group hoped to know the name of their new owner at the start of 2022. Two months after the filing of two takeover offers from the Marseille daily and Corse-Morning with the Bobigny commercial court, which manages the liquidation of the assets of the Bernard Tapie group (GBT), they remain in the dark and are publicly worried about it:
“Why don’t we still have access to offers? What is the timeline for the procedure? What guarantees do we have that the intentions communicated verbally by the buyers will be kept? »
For Jérôme Lorant, elected Force Ouvrière and secretary of the social and economic committee (CSE) of the group, the questions pile up and remain unanswered despite his repeated requests. Wednesday, January 26, a general meeting and a press conference will be an opportunity for employees to express their concerns. In a virulent press release published the day before, the FO and CGT sections of Corse-Morning are concerned about the possibility of a social, democratic and legal scandal”.
“Headless Ducks”
“Our newspapers are headless ducks and cannot initiate any investment. Any delay in redemption is detrimental as their financial situation deteriorates,” summarizes an elected union representative. To force the Bobigny court to communicate with them, the staff representatives voted unanimously, on January 24, during an extraordinary CSE, to launch an information-consultation procedure.
“If this file does not resolve itself in the very next few days, it will be necessary to consider the prospect of a provisional administration”
Judicial representative appointed by the Commercial Court of Marseille to accompany the sale, Frédéric Avazeri wrote to the competent courts to alert them to “ the extent of the disarray” employees and ” the fragility ” of the framing. “If this file does not resolve itself in the very next few days, it will be necessary very seriously to consider the prospect of a provisional administration », he announces, in a letter consulted by The world.
Since November 30, the situation has continued to become more complicated. That day, two buyers submitted offers to buy back the 89% shares held by the former president of OM, who died on October 3, 2021: the CMA CGM group, a shipping giant chaired by Rodolphe Saadé, and NJJ, the holding company of Xavier Niel (individual shareholder of the World), already owner of 11% of Provence through its subsidiary Avenir Développement. Two months later, the envelopes containing offers and takeover plans were put away and another legal front opened up.
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