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ARNAUD LAGARDÈRE
Lagardère shareholders reach agreement on group’s future
Hachette Livre parent company Lagardère is changing its statutes to become a joint-stock company, with chief Arnaud Lagardère relinquishing full management control of the firm. An agreement between the shareholders was made
this week, bringing to an end a prolonged dispute on the future of the company. Arnaud Lagardère will
remain in his post for six years, but he will give up his special controlling status of the group in exchange for 10 million shares. This will double his shareholding
through his holding company Lagardère Capital to 14%. Vivendi, owner of Editis, the second-largest French publisher, will own 27% of the group. Amber Capital— one of Arnaud Lagardère’s leading critics— will own 18%, the Qatar Investment Authority 12%, Financière Agache (holding company of LVMH boss Bernard Arnault) 7%, and “others” 22%. Pierre Leroy, new c.e.o.
of Hachette Livre, will be Arnaud Lagardère’s deputy. The agreement rules out
a break-up of the group in the immediate future, but does not exclude a sale of assets at some future point. Any publishing divestiture worth more than €50m would have to have the go-ahead from at least three- fifths of the shareholder votes, or seven of the 11 members of the incoming board of directors.
volume 3.10m Rights deal
Wilson reimagines Railway Children Jacqueline Wilson above has reimagined E Nesbit’s classic The Railway Children as a “thrilling modern adventure”, to be published by Puffin. Kelly Hurst, editorial director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Caroline Walsh at David Higham Associates. The Primrose Railway Children will publish on 16th September 2021, with cover and inside illustrations by Rachael Dean. Wilson refers to Nesbit as her favourite classic children’s author and, in 2012, wrote Four Children and It (Puffin), inspired by Nesbit’s Five Children and It.
WEEK ON WEEK 15.2%
Book of the Week
Weekly TCM
Letters to Camondo Edmund de Waal Chatto & Windus
This week’s most read
Publishing faces ‘watershed’ moment on free expression
Rights deal
Century wins Holly Willoughby auction Reflections by Holly Willoughby above has been bought by Century in a 10-way auction. Zennor Compton, senior commissioning editor, acquired world rights from Felicity Blunt at Curtis Brown for publication on 28th October 2021. A major publicity and marketing campaign is planned for the autumn and into the New Year. Reflections is a collection about “finding your beauty, inside and out”.
TheBookseller.com
Publishing faces ‘watershed’ on free expression
Lagardere negotiating to become joint stock company
P
ublishing recruits must be warned they may have to work on books by people
they don’t agree with, Hachette c.e.o. David Shelley told a Lords committee this week. Shelley below left spoke to
the Communications & Digital Committee investigating freedom of expression online. Committee member Gail Rebuck, chair of Penguin Random House, highlighted a number of recent incidents, including young publishers expressing concern over working with J K Rowling, currently published by Hachette. Shelley said: “I think the one
crucial thing is to be very open with people from the interview stage about what the organisa- tion stands for. We’re very open that people might need to work on books they don’t agree with, that we’re an organisation that
Tomas leaves Johnson & Alcock to form own agency
believes in a plurality of voices and wants to find readers every- where.” He insisted Hachette UK would only refuse to take on a book if there was no market for it or if it contravened the law: “We’re fairly precise about that and we try as much as possible not to take value judgments in there at all. It’s looking at the strict legal definitions.” Meanwhile, literary agent
Clare Alexander told the committee the industry was at a “watershed” moment, with some authors now self-censoring for fear of being criticised on grounds such as cultural appro- priation. “I think people over 40 and certainly over 60 are very worried about how they’re going to fit into the current sort of culture and they’re very anxious about what sort of subjects they can write about,” she said.
23
£14.99, 9781784744311 Edmund de Waal’s newest title, Letters to Camondo, débuted in the Top 50 in 38th place, charting sixth in the Hardback Non-fiction top 20. The title centres around Count Moise de Comondo’s collection of French 18th-century art, linking back to de Waal’s The Hare with Amber Eyes, which has sold over 400,000 copies to date.
Data The bestseller charts 26
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LATEST NEWS Bookshops campaign for same business rate relief as pubs
Bookshops are asking to be given the same business-rate relief as pubs, arguing they help to drive social cohesion in a similar way to drinking establishments.
Igloo overhaul puts business back on track
Igloo Books, the mass-market children’s books business owned by Bonnier Publishing, has undergone an overhaul thanks to its new chief executive officer, who has affirmed the division’s future profitability.
PLR to cover e-books and audiobooks
The Public Lending Right (PLR) will be extended to cover e-book audiobooks borrowed from libraries from 1stJ
© Gilles Bassignac—Lagardère
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