By Sudip Kar Gupta
PARIS (Reuters) – Arnaud Lagardere, chairman and CEO of French publishing group Lagardere SA, has resigned from his senior positions following an indictment that he will appeal, the company said on Tuesday.
In the indictment filed by French prosecutors on Monday, Arnaud Lagardere is accused of embezzling company funds for his personal expenses. The 63-year-old manager denied all the allegations contained in the indictment, the Lagardere SA group said in a statement.
In a second statement on Tuesday evening, Lagardere said the board of directors had selected Jean-Christophe Thiery to temporarily replace Arnaud Lagardere as Chairman and CEO.
Thiery has been Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Groupe Canal+ since 2018 and will continue to hold this position.
A judicial source said the charges also included spreading false or misleading information, buying votes and failing to file financial statements.
“As part of the indictment, Arnaud Lagardere has been provisionally suspended from holding directorships. He is fighting this measure and intends to appeal. However, this will force him to give up his directorships within the group,” said the statement from Lagardere SA.
The charges relate essentially to facts relating to partnerships that are 100 percent owned by Arnaud Lagardere and do not concern any companies in the Lagardere Group, it said.
Lagardere SA’s business areas include the radio station Europe 1, the Relay stores that are ubiquitous in France’s train stations and airports, and several major book publishers.
In the 1980s, Arnaud Lagardere’s late father Jean-Luc expanded the company into a conglomerate that included both media and defense activities.
Arnaud Lagardere gradually sold parts of the conglomerate, which now focuses on publishing and duty-free shops.
In 2020, he brought in investors including Vivendi and luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault to fend off an activist campaign from Amber Capital. Media giant Vivendi eventually bought a 59.7% stake in Lagardere SA.
The judicial source said the investigation into Arnaud Lagardere, launched in 2021, was based on a complaint from Amber Capital as well as reports from the French financial markets regulator and an official audit authority.
Amber Capital, whose stake was acquired by Vivendi, had long been in dispute with Arnaud Lagardere over his management of the company.
(Written by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Ingrid Melander; edited by Kirsten Donovan, Susan Fenton, Jan Harvey and Jonathan Oatis)
