PARIS -French media publisher Lagardere, whose assets Paris Match magazine and Europe 1 radio attracted the attention of France's richest businessmen, confirmed on Wednesday it would change its governance structure to end disputes with investors.
"The supervisory board of Lagardere SCA has positively received the proposal presented by Arnaud Lagardere to submit the conversion of Lagardere SCA from a partnership limited by shares into a joint-stock company to the 30 June 2021 general meeting", the company said in a statement.
Lagardere's run-ins with activist-investor Amber Capital over its governance set-up pushed the firm to bring in other shareholders, including Vincent Bollore via his Vivendi group, and LVMH luxury goods boss Bernard Arnault.
Earlier this week, Lagardere said it was reviewing a project to transform itself to a joint-stock company, with the view of unravelling an arcane structure that had caused strife with shareholders.
Soon after the announcement, the company's share price rose 3.5% on Monday, bringing the stock's gains since the start of the year at 13.48%, in line with Stoxx Europe 600 Media Index progress over the period.
The French publisher said in its statement that its proposal is "made in the perspective of a composed shareholder dialogue, the main investors in Lagardere SCA having agreed to vote in favour of the proposal, and Lagardere and Amber Capital having agreed to terminate their legal disputes".
"The proposed conversion would represent an important milestone in the group's history," it added.
Arnaud Lagardere, who took over the company from his late father, controls Lagardere with only 7% of the shares in a "commandite", a two-layer partnership structure that gives him sway over decisions and formed a buttress against takeover attempts.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Sarah White and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)