Six takeover offers for Nice-Matin presented on Tuesday, September 9, provide for between 169 and 456 job cuts out of a total of 1,106 jobs, according to a union source.
These offers, presented by court administrators and which may still be modified in the coming weeks, will be adjudicated by the Nice commercial court on October 13.
Bernard Tapie, in partnership with the employees through the SCIC, has expressed his intention to appoint Patrick Le Lay, the former CEO of TF1, as the manager of the future company.
At the end of May, the commercial court decided to open a judicial recovery procedure for the Nice-Matin group (currently 607 employees), as well as for its distribution company Publinice-Services (334 employees). Additionally, a judicial safeguard procedure had been launched for its advertising agency Eurosud Côte d’Azur (165 employees).
The Belgian press group Rossel (Le Soir, La Voix du Nord, L’Union…), in association with the Monegasque construction group Marzocco and Franco-Lebanese businessman Iskandar Safa, proposes to take over “650” employment contracts out of the total 1,106 jobs, which means 456 job cuts, according to a CGT representative.
The Normandy Information and Communication Society (publisher of Paris Normandie, Le Havre Libre, and Le Havre Presse) suggests “739” contracts will be taken over, including 352 at Nice-Matin, 271 at Publinice-Services, and 116 at Eurosud, resulting in 367 job cuts.
An offer from the former owner of La Tribune and France Soir, Georges Ghosn, plans for “853” job takeovers, including 399 at Nice-Matin, 316 at Publinice-Services, and 138 at Eurosud. This offer would lead to the cut of 253 jobs. Mr. Ghosn notably proposes to maintain three editions of the newspaper (Alpes-Maritimes, Var, Monaco), compared to the current 14 editions.
The Azur Santé Retraite group proposes roughly 300 job cuts.
The employees of the group, attempting to finalize a financial offer through a collective interest cooperative society (SCIC) in which Bernard Tapie would participate, advocate maintaining “937” positions, involving 169 “voluntary” departures (including 104 for the Nice-Matin group).
The sixth offer, a “plan B” also led by Bernard Tapie aiming to promote synergies with his newspaper La Provence, has not been detailed to the employees.
On September 18, all bidders will personally present their projects before the works council, including detailed lists of the retained positions.
