Le Monde Acquired by Press Protection Endowment Fund
The fund says it “has a general interest mission to defend freedom of opinion and expression in France”
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The French daily newspaper Le Monde which was part of NJJ Presse, controlled by Xavier Niel, has been acquired by the Fund for Press Independence, a nonprofit created by major shareholders to protect the company’s independence.
The fund’s board of directors announced on Monday that the sale was authorized last week. Following the acquisition, the fund now holds 99.9% of the shares in NJJ Presse, becoming an indirect shareholder of Groupe Le Monde.
Created in 2021, the fund is a nonprofit organization with a 6-member board of directors. Niel started the initiative with the goal of protecting press groups from “third-party influence.” The fund “has a general interest mission to defend freedom of opinion and expression in France,” the release added.
The shares held by the fund are not able to be transferred and the board is not permitted to vote on the sale of its shares in Groupe Le Monde “without a favourable response from the independence unit’s representative on the board,” according to a press release.
“This historic change will not, however, alter the governance or operation of our Group, which is structured around an unchanged supervisory board and management board. Our mission will also remain unchanged: to enable our editorial teams to publish rigorous, independent content for a wide audience, while consolidating our self-financing, which has been restored in recent years,” CEO of Groupe Le Monde Louis Dreyfus said in a statement.
“Exactly fourteen years ago, the trio of Pierre Bergé, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse began informal discussions with the editors of Le Monde to examine the possibility of recapitalising the Group,” the statement continued. “Thanks to their help but also supported by our collective, our Group has been transformed: it is more economically robust, and geographically united, with stronger rights for our editorial teams, and a shareholder base that is now secure.”
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