It’s done, France Télévisions is now a tenant of Patrick Drahi. Public television will set up part of its activities in the Balard district, a stone’s throw from the Ministry of the Armed Forces, in a building owned by the SCI Holding Quadrans, a company owned by the billionaire. Public television will occupy 17,000 of the 91,000 m2 of this set of four buildings designated by their orientation (East, West, North and South), for an annual rent of 9.4 million euros (ie 553 euros/m2).
The #DrahiLeaks that we have been exploring for weeks leave a trace of the operation. A document dated June 2022 mentions the “planned” arrival of the new tenant. The case is now settled and the lease signed (1). “The north building is already completely emptied, ready to welcome the employees of France Télévisions”, confirms a source on site. They will replace employees who have been distributed to other buildings.
#DRAHILEAKS
Patrick Drahi is a powerful businessman. 11th French fortune although domiciled in Switzerland, he is at the head of the Altice group. A sprawling empire that notably brings together telecom companies (SFRCablevision…), media (BFM TV, RMC…) or art trade (Sotheby’s)…
In August 2022, the Russian hacker group Hive uploaded hundreds of thousands of hacked documents to Altice in a hidden corner of the Internet after failing to blackmail the businessman. reflections, Blast and StreetPress have teamed up to explore these leaks.
The documents shed light on a complex industrial group, located in countries that are very flexible in tax matters and very indebted. Incidentally, they show the colossal way of life of a family as discreet as it is rich. Far from the end of abundance announced by Emmanuel Macron.
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The “Media Pentagon”
Patrick Drahi did not have too many difficulties to find the occupants of this program in which he invested with his faithful right arm Armando Pereira and Alain Weill, the ex-CEO of SFR and NextRadio TV. They are committed for several years. This address, described as the “new media Pentagon” by Les Echosis also the headquarters of Altice France (SFR) and NextRadio TV (the media group that oversees RMC et BFM TV) since 2018. It is above all a beautiful real estate transaction, exemplary of the “Drahi method”.
Purchased for 907 million from Axa and designed by the essential Wilmotte firm, the four buildings quickly rose in value. Two years after the launch of the operation, Capital estimates the value of the whole at 1.156 billion euros.
France Télévisions will occupy 17,000 of the 91,000 square meters of Altice France’s head office, for an annual rent of 9.4 million euros, or 553 euros per square meter. /
Credits: DrahiLeaks
The Quadrans operation was meticulously prepared. At the helm, the international business firm Mayer-Brown. In a 29-page memorandum written in May 2016, Mayer-Brown’s experts write the stages of the perfect scenario, “step by step” – from the launch of the project until its realization in 2018. Legal typology of financial vehicles and companies (to hold the assets and make them “circulate”), distribution of debts and receivables (to “optimize” the investment), the roadmap forgets nothing. Each step of a complex financial package is nicely summarized by the diagrams on pages 4 to 6.
When the first act of this operation opens, the head office of SFR is still located in Saint-Denis (93) in a building called Campus Saint-Denis. The Next Radio TV channels are already in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, rue d’Oradour-sur-Glane. The operation started in 2016 with the acquisition of the East building for an amount of 238 million euros excluding tax, 80% financed by the banks (190 M€). The rest is settled on Patrick Drahi’s own fundswhich invests in the case 52,016,722 euros (11.6%), Alain Weill for 6,439,000 euros (2.7%) and Armando Pereira 13,554,421 euros (5.7%).
The purchase of the other three buildings (North, South and West) took place a few months later. Total amount of the acquisition: 644,176,993 euros, of which 456,000,000 euros (70.8 ) bank credit. Alain Weill is not in the game this time. Patrick Drahi and Armando Pereira are investing 147.3 million euros respectively (22.8) and 40.8 million euros (6.3%). The Quadrans set cost a total of 907 million including 646 provided via bank credit (71%).
At the end of the first episode, the three businessmen and their bankers are therefore owners. Of a beautiful case certainly, but which rings hollow. If investors are fond of new buildings well located on the left bank of the capital, they prefer occupied ones. This is the subject of act two.
A lessor and a tenant called… Patrick Drahi
Miracle of the clocks (which line up), the ink of the purchase contracts barely dry, NextRadio TV signs two leases for just over ten million euros with Quadrans Est, even though the lease on rue d ‘Oradour-sur-Glane runs until 2019. Renting is not really a good deal with firm 12-year commitments and rent at €540/m². Either conditions above the high market range, as evidenced by an assessment carried out at the end of 2016 by CBRE – a firm that defines itself as “world leader in business real estate consulting”. As there is a little room left to the east, the entity SFR Presse in turn signs a lease for an annual gross rent of approximately five million euros. The building facing the Levant becomes the headquarters of the group’s media activity.
At the end of 2016, the business went smoothly, there is only one business left for rent in this building. The Aux 3 Présidents restaurant moved there in March 2017. 100% of the shares ultimately belong to a certain Patrick Drahiwhich pays itself a rent of 50,000 euros per year (for 280m2).
For the North, South and West buildings, there again no need to go through the classifieds. Altice France signs a lease for each of the buildings to install SFR. At €540/m2, again this is not a friendly price that the landlord-Drahi makes to the tenant-Drahi: in Saint-Denis, the telecom operator paid just over 40 million euros in rent annual and had a surface area of 134,000m2, or 300 €/m2. In Quadrans, the bill is only 36.8 million euros per year but for only 60,000m2.
In addition, this move imposed on the company cost it dearly: she had to pay… for premises she no longer occupiedthe Saint-Denis leases running until 2023 and 2025. And SFR has again invested several million euros for the technical installations necessary for certain services. “Services which precisely occupied the North building reserved for France Télévisions, confides Xavier (2), an employee. The employees of these services are afraid of being less well established in the other buildings because they know that the management is not going to redeploy the resources it provided for the initial installation. »
23% added value
From now on, Quadrans sounds very full. Thanks to its tenants, the whole is estimated in 2018 by BNP Paribas Real Estate at 1.15 billion euros. A 23% increase over the purchase price in two years. The last act can be played. There SCI Holding Quadrans, which owns the real estate asset, then sells 49% of its shares to the Primonial Reim investment fund. This superb added value for Patrick Drahi, Alain Weill and Armando Pereira was revealed at the time by Capital Magazine (300 million euros, according to the estimate of our colleagues).
In 2022, the circle is complete when the three North, South and West buildings are leased by Altice France (SFR) for 36,798,809 euros gross excluding tax. In total, adding the East building which brings in 15,729,256 euros gross excluding tax each year, the whole unit generates 52,528,065 euros gross excluding tax in rent. Quadrans quietly achieves the 4.35% annual return announced by the valuations. And too bad if some employees were better off in Saint-Denis.
In an anorak on the premises
“I much preferred the premises before, says Xavier. It was bigger, the offices were less crowded, there were big meeting rooms and the air conditioning worked. It sucks, but it’s important. This winter, truthful, it was sometimes necessary to keep the anoraks on to work ».
Liberation and the Express
For a time in the Drahi galaxy, the weekly L’Express (owned by Alain Weill) temporarily stayed in the offices of Quadrans, until July 2020. The daily Liberation was also to settle there. Its headquarters are now located in the 13th arrondissement in a building… Property of the same Patrick Drahi. We told in a previous survey of the #DrahiLeaks series how this daily move allowed the businessman to have the acquisition financed by the banks (thanks to the guaranteed rent).
It also seems that the furniture is not always up to par: “There are employees who enhance their desks by putting them on reams of paper because they are too low “, deplores our employee of SFR who, above all, misses the large auditorium of the headquarters of Saint-Denis. “It was magnificent, like a theater. We could gather the collaborators or receive the journalists. Here, in Quadrans, the journalists, we receive them in the canteen”.
Less chic, of course. Valuation is sometimes misnamed.
(1) This lease concerns only part of the activities of France Télévisions, whose head office, located close by, remains unchanged.
(2) The first name has been changed.
Investigation by Florence Gaillard. Illustration from Une by Caroline Varon.
Contacted, Patrick Drahi did not answer our questions
For several months now, five journalists, helped by financial analysts and lawyers, have been combing through the millions of pages of the DrahiLeaks. A long-term job which is expensive and to which must be added the legal costs: proofreading by the lawyers of the articles and trials.
To deal with it, we have created together a support kitty. Each euro paid will be used exclusively to finance this investigation, because we did not plan to stop there. See you in a few months for new revelations.
REREAD THE SAISON 1 OF THE DRAHILEAKS
DISCOVER THE SAISON 2 OF THE DRAHILEAKS
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