Xavier Niel’s holding company NJJ (Free) bought the Paris-Turf group for a million euros. The businessman plans to close the Aix-en-Provence site and dismiss three-quarters of the employees.
–
Their faces are defeated. Some people cry out in dismay by going back and forth with an edgy gait. Others remain stunned, as if paralyzed by the news.
They learn it instantly. The Bobigny Commercial Court has just found Xavier Niel’s offer for the takeover of the Paris-Turf group.
About 70 planned layoffs
This last day of June 2020, the employees of the Aix-Paris site of Paris-Turf will never forget it. They know that three quarters of them will be laid off.
This is part of the plan of NJJ, the personal holding company of Xavier Niel, which buys Paris-Turf for a million euros.
“It’s a waste”, regrets Stéphane Longubardo, CFDT delegate for the Paris-Turf Group.
“All because of a management that has never understood anything about racing, and who does not know what the press is.
We … the players, our readers, our profession, we know them by heart “.
Sitting around an outdoor table, a group of men and women are shocked.
“There you go, it’s over”says a woman in her forties.
“I am disappointed, it is a beautiful injustice” launches another.
“We knew it, but it still hurts“, continues her neighbor.
We expected this from the start. The dice were loaded, the administrators were against us. It is always the one who has the most money who unfortunately wins. But still, we still had a little hope “.
Aix-en-Provence site closure
The founder of Illiad (Free) plans to stop the paper editions of the daily newspapers Bilto and Tiercé magazine, and the monthly Stato, Cheval Magazine and Cheval Pratique. All are titles of the Paris-Turf group.
It also provides for the cessation of activity in Aix-en-Provence where the magazines were made, and the cessation of printing in Vitrolles.
Xavier Niel could implement “impression synergies” with Provence and Nice-Matin, in which he recently became a shareholder.
“He plans to keep around thirty of us (out of the hundred or so employees), whom he will probably want to distribute in the other newspapers. But we are not cattle all the same”, continues the union representative.
The employees of the Aix site were on their eighth day on strike, to obtain better recovery conditions.
I hope many of you will ask her questions
Stéphane Longubardo, CFDT delegate
Anthony Maarek, CEO of NJJ, is coming to meet them this morning.
“He will explain his strategy to us, and I hope that many of us will ask him questions “, wish Stéphane Longubardo. “But we also want to explain to him what our Aix site is, which has made the wealth of our group. This work with little hands, the moderate prices that were applied”.
As for Xavier Niel, this takeover of the leading horse racing group in France, reinforces the tentatic development of his holding company in the media world.
The businessman is also a co-shareholder of the Le Monde group and has just taken over France-Antilles.
–
