Media: Bernard Arnault buys L'Opinion and L'Agefi

Bernard Arnault, CEO of the world's leading luxury goods company LVMH, which controls the Les Echos-Le Parisien and Paris Match media groups, has acquired the liberal daily L'Opinion and the financial news website L'Agefi, sources close to the matter said on Thursday, July 3, confirming a report from Le Figaro.

The LVMH group, already a minority shareholder in Bey Médias, the structure that oversees L'Opinion and L'Agefi, has acquired the entire stake. It intends to "give the titles the means to develop," according to these sources.

The amount of the transaction was not specified. The shares of other shareholders, including those of the Bettencourt family's Thétys holding company, American Ken Fisher, and the Dow Jones group, owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, were also sold to LVMH.

Bey Médias will become an autonomous entity within the luxury group , and the governance of the titles remains unchanged: Nicolas Beytout, who was Bey Médias's largest shareholder, will remain chairman. Editors-in-chief Rémi Godeau of L'Opinion and Alexandre Garabedian of L'Agefi will remain at the helm. These announcements were made at the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) on Thursday.

According to Le Figaro, the LVMH CEO participated in the financing of L'Opinion since its creation in 2013 by Nicolas Beytout, to defend a resolutely liberal and pro-European line. L'Opinion is chronically in deficit, unlike L'Agefi, a heavyweight in financial information in France. The titles have a total of some 150 employees, including 90 journalists, and the jobs have been retained.

"For a founder, knowing that the company will last is an important element," said Nicolas Beytout , who was previously CEO of the Les Échos group.

In 2024, the latter entered into exclusive negotiations to open the group's capital to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his media subsidiary CMI France. But these discussions were unsuccessful. In 2023, other negotiations for refinancing were also launched with Kretinsky's competitor, Rodolphe Saadé (CMA CGM), also without success.

At the end of 2024, LVMH, already the owner of the Les Echos-Le Parisien press group, acquired Paris Match from the Lagardère group, which is owned by another billionaire, Vincent Bolloré.