French daily Le Parisien for sale

Posted by Alisa Zykova on September 3, 2010 at 6:36 AM

The latest addition to the list of potential buyers of French daily Le Parisien includes Serge Dassault, the owner of right-leaning Le Figaro, Le Monde reported yesterday. Other interested parties include prominent German publisher Axel Springer and UK-based Mecom.

Bolloré, the French publisher of free dailies Direct Matin and Direct Soir, said that it was looking at all the options on the table. President Vincent Bolloré (left) said on Wednesday that the possible acquisition was "interesting" but that it poses "a certain number of problems" for a firm like his, AFP said. He added that the daily had quality content, an important logistics base and views that did not contradict those of his dailies, according to Les Echos.

Stéphane Richard, general director of France Télécom (which owns network provider Orange) met with Le Parisien owner Marie-Odile Amaury. A France Télécom spokesperson said that Orange was not interested in branching out into the newspaper industry but instead was attracted to the digital aspects of the Amaury group. Meanwhile, Axel Springer's offer was declared as too low.

The daily, which is owned by the Amaury group, was put up for sale in June, after seeing an operating profit of €2.74 million and a turnover of nearly €199 million in 2009, according to Le Monde. Amaury asked the Rothschild bank to estimate the value of the paper, which was found out to be around €200 million, according to AFP. However, current offers linger between €100 and €150 million.

Amaury said she wants her company to focus on digital ventures and sporst while ridding itself of the press sector, which is not really "profitable," Le Monde added.