There is a “evangelizer” talked about in the race to get Editis

Paris. To finalize the purchase of Hachette Livre through the publishing giant that owns it, Lagardère, the Breton tycoon Vincent Bolloré, owner of Vivendi, is forced to sell Editis, mastodon of the French publishing world with more than fifty maisons in its portfolio, including Robert Laffont, Plon, Julliard and the Dictionnaires Le Robert. The assignment is the conditio sine qua non to obtain the approval of the European competition authority: because a single holding company cannot be the owner of the first and second largest publishing group in France in terms of size and turnover, namely Hachette Livre and Editis. The name of the future buyer will be announced on March 8, according to what was revealed to Letter A by a source close to the dossier. Among the candidates, in addition to the Italian Mondadori, the Canadian Québecor and the French group Reworld Media, there is a trio of entrepreneurs who arouse a certain curiosity in Paris, but also a lot of concern: Stéphane Courbit, television producer at Banijay’s head, Daniel Kretinsky, Czech billionaire with investments in the energy, retail, tech and media sectors (he is a shareholder of the Monde and has recently rescued Libération with a loan of 14 million euros), and Pierre-Edouard Sterinfounder of Smartbox, European leader in the sale of gift boxes, as well as a fiscal exile in Belgium since the time of the taxes on the “super rich” decided by the socialist president François Hollande and his adviser Thomas Piketty.