But the firm offer stage has been reached

And five. While the names of four potential candidates were already for the resumption of the "world", media Swiss Ringier group was added to the list. He asked Thursday night to investigate the case, taking advantage of the passage in Paris from its President, Michael Ringier. "We do not know yet whether we will make a formal offer." "But Ringier, partner of the"world"in the Swiss newspaper"Le Temps", cannot satisfy the fate of his partner, as the synergies are important," explains Jean - Clément Texier, President of Ringier France. Present in a dozen countries, Ringier owns 47 of the "time", "The world" which also has 2.

Not being based in the European Union, the Swiss is a priori capped its investments of France Press, 20 of the capital. But an evolution of the legislation on this point is now largely committed. Above all, the editor of Zurich has not yet decided if he would combine with another investor. According to Jean - Clément Texier, there in any case the means to return to "The world" single. He has indeed create a joint venture with Axel Springer, bringing together their activities in the countries of the East, which allowed him to reach a balance of "several million euros. According to our information, this balance would be even greater than 100 million.

This new brand of interest could contribute to disrupt the schedule for the recapitalisation. The two Councils of monitoring of the companies of "world" held last week raised the question of the date deadline of June 14, which provided a crucial Supervisory Board: legally, he should endorse the choice of the purchaser, so that the Auditors can approve. But many interlocutors raised the difficulty to make firm offers of here on that date. As the real deadline "economic" lies rather in July, with a cap of hard cash, it is not excluded as the deadline for the choice of the purchaser should be postponed for a week or two.

Assignment of risen printing

In the meantime, the meetings move, the various candidates exposing their interest - or their project - to representatives of the SRM (society of writers of the world) and SDL (society of readers), shareholders of head structure, which will have to pronounce the name of the buyer with a majority of 18 votes on 20.

To date, it is the tandem Pierre Bergé - Matthieu Pigasse (Bank Lazard in France pattern) and owner of the "Inrockuptibles" which seems to be the most advanced. The two men were joined at the weekend by Xavier Niel, CEO of Iliad and founder of Free. And the three partners will now be a holding the free world, they owned in equal parts by and which will be equipped with EUR 80 million in capital for the resumption of "world". To respond to the concerns of writing on potential conflicts of interest, the associates are ready to commit statutorily meet independence editorial of "world".

The owner of the "Nouvel Observateur", Claude Perdriel, who was the first to officially declare its intention to take a majority stake, two weeks ago, now seems to be less enthusiastic, some members of the Supervisory Board. Its alliance with the Spanish group Prisa, a time mentioned, seems more the order of the day and no other potential partner name circulates. In a recovery, Denis Olivennes, Chairman of the Executive Board of the new observer group, would take over the chairmanship of the Executive Board of the world group. Finally, the Spanish group Prisa and Italian Espresso, which names are circulating for several months, continue to declare interest, at least informally. But the firm offer stage has been reached.

According to our information, it would be all the more difficult to make an offer that the assignment by its printing world is more complicated than expected. Some standards updates would indeed be necessary involving a cost of several million euros. A complex situation for potential buyers.