Two major European bosses have great ambitions in the media: Rodolphe Saadé, of CMA CGM, and Daniel Kretinsky who has just signed an exclusivity agreement with Vivendi to negotiate the takeover of Editis.
It is a sign that does not deceive. Rodolphe Saadé and Daniel Kretinsky were each entitled, this week, to their portrait in THE echoes Or THE Figaro. Portraits where Xavier Niel is quoted, with words worth dubbing. Niel sees in the Czech Daniel Kretinsky, 47, a young man who is not ready to play ” the service pigeon “, a compliment for him. And about the Franco-Lebanese Rodolphe Saadé, 53 years old, “ I appreciate him, he is someone who is clear, straightforward, we can discuss all subjects “, says the founder of Free, shareholder of the World and new godfather of French capitalism. He did not say as much last year when he argued with the boss of CMA-CGM for control of the daily There Provence. Saadé then prevailed in his legal battle to control the newspaper by offering four times the price of his rival.
Today, fifth fortune in France, Saadé has tripled the turnover of CMA-CGM in five years, to 75 billion dollars, after the explosion of maritime transport prices. It is no longer a boss that we grieve, but that we court. The government does not hesitate, and this, while his group records superprofits that some want to tax. Because Saadé displays ambitions in the media. Last year, he sought to buy M6 with Stéphane Courbit and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière. And he will look at the file as soon as Bertelsmann wants to divest himself of it again. After all, he already owns 9% of the capital of the channel, he is a shareholder in the production group of Stéphane Courbit (FL Entertainment), and – well – he has just agreed with Xavier Niel to invest 40 million euros in the Brut online media. Will this agreement end when Saadé sets out to conquer M6, which Niel covets? That’s the whole question.
For his part, Daniel Kretinsky, a passive co-shareholder of the group THE Worldowner of Marianneof Sheof TV 7 Days or of Maverick, owns 8% of the TF1 group. For this energy industrialist who made his fortune by betting on end-of-life coal-fired power plants, investing in the media intends to offset his heavy carbon footprint. It is in the process of buying Editis, the number 2 publisher in France, which Vivendi must resell to keep only Hachette. With houses as famous as Nathan, Bordas, Julliard, Plon or Robert Laffont, Daniel Kretinsky will bring his paper empire to nearly a billion euros in turnover. And publishing is perhaps better than the press in terms of influence. He is not a journalist, a politician who does not dream of publishing a book…