He has been present there since 2018. Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky announced on Saturday that he was withdrawing from the group’s capital. The world by reselling his shares to another billionaire with a stake in the media group, the Frenchman Xavier Niel.
Daniel Kretinsky, who has increased his investments in major media in recent years, specifies that he “will continue to support French titles and guarantee their independence as a shareholder” for example at She, Marianneor the review Franc-Stireur“or as a lender” for everyday life Release.
The amount of this operation has not been communicated. Xavier Niel’s holding company (NJJ) specified that the operation was carried out after agreement from the “independence center of the World », the minority structure which ensures its independence and unanimously approved the operation.
The shares will then be transferred to the Press Independence Fund, a structure created in 2021 by Xavier Niel, which makes the capital paid to the media statutorily non-transferable.
“At the end of these movements, the first two shareholders of the Société Éditatrice du Monde will be on the one hand the Fund for the independence of the press (…) and on the other hand the Pôle d’Independance which brings together the editors’ companies , personnel companies and the society of readers of the World », Specifies Xavier Niel’s holding company in a press release.
Xavier Niel is a shareholder of other securities
Xavier Niel and Daniel Kretinsky are among the billionaires increasingly present in the capital of major French media. Daniel Kretinsky had acquired a stake in the group The world at the end of 2018, by taking 49% of the shares of banker Matthieu Pigasse in one of the structures which controlled the newspaper, and raising concerns among employees. It has also increased investments in industry and distribution.
Xavier Niel is one of the very great French fortunes most present in the media: in addition to the Le Monde group, he is a shareholder of Nice morning, France-Antilles or Paris-Turf.