A good point for Xavier Niel and good news for Rodolphe Saadé: in its decision made public on Thursday July 21, the Marseille commercial court did not give complete satisfaction to either of the two billionaires, who have been fighting fiercely since October 2021, the purchase of 89% of the capital of La Provence, held by Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT).
The judges pronounced, as requested by the defenders of Xavier Niel, the cancellation of the approval given, under incredible conditions, by the board of directors of La Provence, on May 9, to the takeover offer of Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of CMA-CGM. They believe that by refusing to take into account the votes of the two representatives of L’Avenir Développement, a subsidiary of the NJJ holding company, owned by Xavier Niel, the chairman of the board of directors, Jean-Christophe Serfati, who is also chairman and director general of Provence, “tainted the conduct of the vote and therefore vitiated the approval decision”.
However, the judges also pronounced the suspension of articles 9 and 13 of the statutes of the press group, as requested by way of counterclaim by the lawyers of La Provence. These articles, negotiated during Bernard Tapie’s lifetime by Xavier Niel, required that the five members of the board of directors unanimously validate any entry into the capital of the newspaper.
In their decision, the judges specify that this suspension applies ” solely for the transfer of the stake of the company GBT in the capital of La Provence”. For them, the vote of the two representatives of L’Avenir Développement, who refused the CMA-CGM offer on May 9 before seeing their ballots invalidated, “characterized the conflict of interest envisaged by the judgment of the Court of Appeal [d’Aix-en-Provence] from April 7, 2022 ». “The condition of unanimity imposed by article 13 of the statutes (…) allows the administrators of the company Avenir Développement to oust any other potential buyer”finds justice, which therefore considers that this provision should be suspended.
NJJ will appeal
By paralyzing this right of approval only within the framework of the liquidation of the assets of GBT, the court deprives the minority shareholder Xavier Niel, who owns 11% of the newspaper and is also an individual shareholder of the Le Monde Group (group which publishes , among others, The world), of his power to veto CMA-CGM’s entry into the capital.
“Nothing now stands in the way of the sale of La Provence group securities to CMA-CGM”, moreover welcomed the shipowner in a press release published after the court’s decision. The shipping giant says to itself “ready to immediately assume its responsibilities to initiate the recovery of Provence and of Corse-Morning ».
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