After Marie Claire, Lagardère prepares to sell Elle

By

Tanissia Issad

Translated by
Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jul 30, 2018

Lagardère wrapped up the first six months of 2018 with a turnover of 3.366 billion euros which is a 4.4 percent increase compared to the same period last year. The group, which is led by Arnaud Lagardère, took the opportunity to confirm the sale of its stake in Marie Claire.
 

By selling its 42 percent stake in Marie Claire, Lagardère made a loss of 40 million euros. The business’ half year report states that the sale of assets and financial investments during that time totals 23 million euros, of which 17 million euros were for the “Lagardère Active” entity alone, which essentially relates to the sale of its shares in Marie Claire. Lagardère sold the shares to the holding company Evelyne Prouvost, which is also the holding company of the Marie Claire group.

On top of this transaction, Lagardère is gradually making moves to separate itself from all of its magazines. Lagardère has reached an agreement with the Czech Media Invest group, which is owned by Daniel Křetínský, about the sale of its French press titles. The two groups entered into exclusive negotiations in April. This sale includes Elle magazine and everything related to it, including the website and other titles including Version Femina, Art & Décoration, Télé 7 Jours, France Dimanche, Ici Paris, and Public. To endorse this agreement, a branch reorganisation, consultations with the representative bodies of the personnel concerned, and possible authorisation from regulatory authorities or competition are planned.

From January to December 2017, the period during which Erin Doherty was the head of Elle, the magazine saw its French sales figures drop by 0.96 percent compared to 2016, totalling 329,932 copies sold a month on average. To compare, during the same time period the magazines Marie Claire, Grazia, and Glamour saw their magazine sales drop by 4.59 percent, 11.06 percent, and 21.45 percent respectively.

On July 12, Lagardère sold MonDocteur to Doctolib and is currently in exclusive negotiations with the TF1 group to sell Doctissimo. On July 26, the business, led by Arnaud Lagardère, finalised the sale of its distribution assets in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Romania to Czech Media Invest for the sum of 73 million euros.