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The fourth rule is to inquire into valuationsView on the sea and attentive and discreet serviceAnd we did not reverse the spiral of debtThey have maintained a market share of 63Today newspapers like endangered speciesThe following departments 29 and the regions 2the disaster is all full of internal errorsWhen driving conditions change better take the time to change tiresThey can be very numerous and contradictoryIt's expensive but less than an unemployed judge"Release" stimulus plan proposed by the former Director of the writing of the "world", Edwy Plenel, and civil society personal liberation (SCPL), can find funding in ten days This is the question which will have to answer the Lazard Bank. Mid-July by the CEO of the newspaper, Vittorio Filippis, mandated to find investors, it faces a new deal.
Whereas, so far, the search for investors to consider a possible compatibility with the first shareholder of "Parole", Edouard de Rothschild, the difficulty is thrown. The former banker informed the directors that it would not finance the project and Edwy Plenel of the SCPL. "The problem now is whether a player French or European will become the first shareholder of"Parole"in continuity with the employees," summarizes the record close. Going to have, in the complex world of the press, find investors who accept the difficult financial situation of "liberation".
The newspaper, who, over ten months, accuses a decline of 7 of its sales and 18 of its advertising revenue, is moving towards a net loss of EUR 13 million in 2006. His liability is estimated at 27.5 million. Its funding requirements are estimated at 10 million euros by Régis Valliot, the judicial administrator, to 20 million by Edwy Plenel.
In recent months several groups were contacted by Lazard, the image of the Rossel Belgian editor or from the German Springer. Some have expressed an interest if being offered a viable project and do not have to deal with Edouard de Rothschild.
For Lazard, the challenge will be to convince investors that it is possible to bring "Parole" into a viable economic framework. The issue of governance of the company may be asked.
Avoid the filing of balance sheet
Presented mid-October, internally, the project of Edwy Plenel table on a redesign of the paper journal, reduced to five or six pages, playing the map of the hot news while reverting with its identity as left. It proposes to strengthen the Web site by moving towards a paid model. Financially, it provides EUR 10 million in savings in 2007 with a boost to sales, 50 of voluntary departures, a provisional reduction of the salaries of 4, etc. Which, taking account of all these components, would lead to a loss in 2007 estimated at EUR 2.3 million. The issue of the next few days will be whether if potential candidates may not expect relief judicial, apparently less costly implementation.
If, on 7 November, and Edwy Plenel of the SCPL project is not funded, Edouard de Rothschild will return to the load with its plan based on a return to the balance of the accounts that passes by 100 job losses, the hiving-off of the Web and the transformation of the classical SAS company.
In the event that employees would refuse this framework, implementing judicial relief would be inevitable. A situation that Régis Valliot wants to avoid at all costs, the past has shown that, for a newspaper, the filing of balance sheet was nothing other than the prefiguration of a disappearance. The weekly "Marianne" indicated that "If dismissal of survival plans" to "Release", it was ready "to launch a daily independent and democratic."
