The failure of the merger with TF1 reshuffles the playing cards across the sale of M6

“There was a vendor. There have been patrons for a yr and a half. So M6 is certainly on the market once more. It stays to be seen how quickly. » This remark from an audiovisual skilled, Monday afternoon, September 19, sums up the mind-set that has reigned within the sector because the announcement, the earlier Friday, of the choice of the Bouygues, RTL Group, TF1 and M6 to desert their merger undertaking.

Formally, Bertelsmann has not but introduced whether or not it needs to relaunch a gross sales course of for the 48.3% of its French subsidiary RTL Group, which owns the M6 ​​group. In reality, the return to sq. one is accompanied by a large reopening of the sector of prospects for the group led by Nicolas de Tavernost.

Discarded eighteen months in the past in favor of TF1, the candidacies of the Italian Mediaset or Xavier Niel (particular person shareholder of the Worldhe was then a candidate with Matthieu Pigasse and Pierre-Antoine Capton) appear to be coming again to the fore. Altice, which the failure of the merger deprives of TFX and 6Ter which it was supposed to amass, ought to rethink the scenario – Patrick Drahi’s group was solely reasonably involved in proudly owning solely a part of the capital.

‘A component of uncertainty’

The curiosity of Czech vitality billionaire Daniel Kretinsky (oblique shareholder of the Worldproprietor of Marianne, She, and many others.), whose undertaking on the time envisaged mergers in the long run with TF1, might, conversely, have been blunted within the face of the rout of TF1-M6. Lastly, a brand new participant within the media since getting ready to grow to be the subsequent proprietor of Groupe La Provence, Rodolphe Saadé, the boss of CMA CGM, might, in keeping with sure data, categorical his curiosity in a duo with Stéphane Courbit, the boss of the audiovisual manufacturing large Banijay. Contacted, the shipowner’s group responds “don’t touch upon rumours”.

“If RTL Group remains to be with a view to separating from M6, the sale can solely be made with a brand new entrant, an actor who doesn’t personal tv or radio”assures an expert of the sector. From his standpoint, the time that Arcom (ex-Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel) and the Competitors Authority would take to look at the recordsdata of an Altice (BFM-TV, RMC) or a Vivendi (Canal+, Europe 1) would certainly make it unattainable to fulfill the deadline of Might 5, 2023.

The misfortune of some being the happiness of others, the scenario has an a variety of benefits for the candidates for redemption put again within the saddle

You’ve 52.16% of this text left to learn. The next is for subscribers solely.