On Monday, the Lagardère group announced that it had sold a 20% stake in South African radio station Jacaranda to the Kagiso Media group, as part of its ongoing refocusing on its publishing and transport distribution activities.
In its press release, the French group stated that this stake had been sold for 233 million South African rand (€15 million). Lagardère also signed an agreement to sell its 49.99% stake in the advertising agency Mediamark to the South African group Kagiso Media for an estimated 30 million rand (€2 million).
"The Lagardère group is delighted to have contributed to the creation of a leading brand and a recognized advertising agency alongside Kagiso Media, a major player in radio in South Africa," the press release concludes.
In 2018, the group has already sold international radio stations, magazines including Elle (excluding international trademark rights), and the Doctissimo and MonDocteur websites. It also recently finalized the sale of its stock market news site Boursier.com, along with its financial content sales activities, to the Les Echos-Le Parisien group, while exclusive negotiations are underway for BilletReduc.com.
The company has also entered into negotiations with M6 for the sale of its television channels (including Gulli, but excluding Mezzo, which will be sold separately) for an amount that Arnaud Lagardère hopes will be "in excess of €200 million," he said during a conference call with investors last week.
On Thursday, the group reported a 2.5% increase in revenue for 2018 to €7.258 billion, thanks in particular to the strong performance of its Travel Retail division (retail outlets in transport hubs).
