LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault acquires L'Opinion and L'Agefi

Paris - Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH (LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton), has acquired the liberal daily L'Opinion and the financial news website L'Agefi. LVMH already controls the Les Echos-Le Parisien press group and Paris Match. Sources close to the matter confirmed the acquisition to the press on Thursday, following a report in Le Figaro.

LVMH, previously a minority shareholder in Bey Médias, the parent company of L'Opinion and L'Agefi, has acquired full ownership. The group intends "to provide the resources for the publications to grow". The transaction amount has not been disclosed. LVMH also acquired the shares of other stakeholders. These include the Thétys holding company of the Bettencourt family; the American investor, Ken Fisher; and Dow Jones, owned by media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Bey Médias will operate independently within LVMH. The governance of the publications remains unchanged. Nicolas Beytout, formerly the majority shareholder of Bey Médias, retains his role as chairman. The editors-in-chief, Rémi Godeau for L'Opinion and Alexandre Garabedian for L'Agefi, also remain in their positions.

These announcements were made to the works council on Thursday. According to Le Figaro, Arnault had participated in the financing of L'Opinion since its founding in 2013 by Beytout. The publication was created to promote a resolutely liberal and pro-European stance.

L'Opinion has been running a chronic deficit, unlike L'Agefi, a heavyweight in French financial news. The publications have a total of 150 employees, including 90 journalists. All jobs will be retained. "For a founder, knowing that the company will continue is important," Beytout, former CEO of Les Echos, told AFP.

In 2024, Beytout entered into exclusive negotiations to open the group's capital to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his media subsidiary, CMI France. However, these discussions were unsuccessful. In 2023, other negotiations for refinancing were also initiated with Kretinsky's competitor, Rodolphe Saadé (CMA CGM), also without success.

In late 2024, LVMH acquired Paris Match from the Lagardère group, owned by another billionaire, Vincent Bolloré.

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