Strategy
2019 General Meeting (Paris, France).
Value creation is central to the Lagardère group's strategic refocusing and leads to better strategic readability in pursuit of higher cash flow generation and significant savings. The Group’s strategy has also been devised to build the global leader in each of its two business segments of Publishing and Travel Retail.
A group refocused around two pillars
As announced by Arnaud Lagardère at the annual results presentation on 8 March 2018 and at the Annual General Meeting of 3 May 2018, the Group has been refocusing around its two priority divisions: Lagardère Publishing, the power engine, and Lagardère Travel Retail, the growth engine. These two divisions are each among the world leaders in their respective businesses and accounted for more than 90% of Group revenue in 2019.
The main objectives of the strategic refocusing are as follows:
- to endow the Group with an improved, simpler, more ambitious and more focused business profile;
- to improve cash generation in order to fund the growth of the Group’s two priority divisions.
Implementation of the asset disposal plan
As part of the refocusing process, the Group has been divesting the assets making up Lagardère Active, excluding Lagardère News. Since 2018, it has sold:
- the stake in Marie Claire in June 2018;
- the radio businesses in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Romania (July 2018) and Africa (February 2019);
- the e-Health unit with MonDocteur (July 2018), Doctissimo (October 2018) and Doctipharma (February 2019);
- the digital businesses with Boursier.com (January 2019), Plurimedia and Billetreduc.com (February 2019);
- the press titles in France in February 2019;
- the stake in Mezzo in July 2019;
- the Television businesses in September 2019;
- the stake in Disney Hachette Presse in October 2019.
These disposals were carried out within a very short time-frame and on broadly satisfactory financial terms.
In addition, the Audiovisual Production and Distribution division (Lagardère Studios) is in the process of being sold.
Lastly, the Group has received an offer to purchase 75% of Lagardère Sports (excluding Lagardère Live Entertainment).
2019 General Meeting (Paris, France).
Developmenent of the priority divisions
The proceeds from these disposals are reinvested first and foremost in Lagardère Publishing and Lagardère Travel Retail, to provide them with the means to become fixtures among the global leaders in their respective segments.
For Lagardère Publishing, these investments include the acquisitions of La Plage (France), Worthy Publishing Group (United States) and Short Books (United Kingdom). Lagardère Publishing has also pressed ahead with its diversification, a process that started in 2016 and Mobile Games, with the acquisition of Gigamic and Blackrock Games, which are specialised in Board Games in France.
For Lagardère Publishing, these investments include the acquisitions of La Plage (France), Worthy Publishing Group (United States) and Short Books (United Kingdom). Lagardère Publishing has also pressed ahead with its diversification, a process that started in 2016 and Mobile Games, with the acquisition of Gigamic and Blackrock Games, which are specialised in Board Games in France.
Lagardère Travel Retail has also carried out a number of major acquisitions to consolidate its positions on high-growth potential markets, including Hojeij Branded Foods (HBF), a Foodservice leader in the travel retail market in North America, and International Duty Free (IDF), a travel retail market leader in Belgium, which also has operations in Luxembourg and Kenya.
Other activities
The Group’s business scope also comprises “Other Activities”, mainly including Lagardère News (Paris Match, Le Journal du Dimanche, Europe 1, Virgin Radio, RFM and the Elle brand licence) together with Lagardère Live Entertainment.
Lagardère News
Press
Paris Match, France’s leading news magazine in terms of both audience and circulation, celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2019 with 13.5 million weekly readers across its various formats1. Paris Match also pressed ahead with its diversification into event organisation, new webseries and videos. Le Journal du Dimanche: France’s “must-read” weekend paper, totalled 3.8 million weekly readers across its various formats. In 2019, it launched a small-format daily, Le Journal de Demain, which gained more than 80,000 subscribers in a matter of weeks.
Radio
In 2019, 3.2 million listeners2 tuned into Europe 1 each day, and listeners downloaded more than 20.3 million of the station’s podcasts.
With 2.1 million daily listeners3, Virgin Radio is the number two music radio station in France3.
RFM also boasts 2.1 million daily listeners, and has the second-highest audience share in the 35+ age bracket as well as a very solid position on the adult music scene4.
Elle brand licence
Elle International, the world’s leading women’s media network, continued its development with highlights including the publication of Elle Décoration in Portugal and the signing of the launch agreement for Elle in Brazil. In the non-media licensing business, the Elle network launched a number of new lines including Elle Homme in China and Elle watches with the Fossil group worldwide, as well as inaugurating new Elle Café stores in China and Thailand.
Lagardère Live Entertainment
Lagardère Live Entertainment, a leading show producer in France, had an outstanding year in 2019 with almost one million spectators turning up to see its touring artists (including -M-, Kev Adams, Jean-Louis Aubert, etc.) and the organisation of a version of the musical Les Choristes in China.
In 2019, Lagardère Live Entertainment also welcomed more than one million spectators to 743 shows across its various venues (Folies Bergère, Casino de Paris, Bataclan, Arkéa Arena and Arena du Pays d’Aix).
1 Source: ACPM Brand One Next Global 2019 V1.
2 Source: Médiamétrie 126,000 Radio; 13+; Monday-Friday, 5 a.m.-midnight; November-December 2019; cumulative audience.
3 Source: Médiamétrie 126,000 Radio; 13+ and 25-49; average Monday-Friday; 5 a.m.-midnight and 7 a.m.-10 a.m.; November-December 2019; cumulative audience, audience share and quarter-hour average.
4 Source: Médiamétrie 126,000 Radio; 13+, 35+; upper occupational groups; average Monday-Friday; 5 a.m.-midnight; November-December 2019; cumulative audience, audience share and listening time per listener.