Louis Hachette Group

Louis Hachette Group S.A. (LHG) is a French conglomerate specialising in publishing, periodicals, media and distribution, with its origins in the Hachette bookshop founded in 1826. Louis Hachette Group is controlled by French businessman Vincent Bolloré.

Formed from the spin-off of Vivendi in December 2024, the new independent entity holds nearly 66.5 percent of the Lagardère group (Hachette Livre, Larousse, Fayard, Relay, Le Le Journal du dimanche, Europe 1, etc.) as well as 100% of the French press group Prisma Media (Voici, Femme Actuelle, Geo (France), Télé-Loisirs, Capital, etc.).

France's leading publisher since 2004 and the world's 6th largest publishing group, Louis Hachette Group has its origins in the Hachette publishing group, founded by Louis Hachette in 1826 after the purchase of the Parisian bookshop Brédif.

History

In December 2023, Vivendi announced that it was carrying out a feasibility study into a plan to split its activities into 4 entities: Canal , Havas, a publishing and distribution company (combining Lagardère and Prisma Media), and an investment company.

On 29 October 2024, the new Louis Hachette Group was created as a publishing and distribution company, leaving Vivendi as an investment company. On 30 October 2024, Vivendi and the new Louis Hachette Group entity entered into a partial demerger agreement, enabling LHG to hold a 66.53% stake in Lagardère and a 100% stake in Prisma Media in the event of a favourable vote by Vivendi shareholders.

The company started trading at Euronext Paris on 16 December 2024, the shares were trading at 1.42 euros on that day, up 18% on the opening price.

Activities

The future activities of Louis Hachette Group will be carried out by two main entities:

Lagardère SA
- Lagardère Publishing
  - Hachette Livre (publishing)
    - Hachette Book Group (ex-Time Warner Book Group)
    - Hachette Australia
    - Little, Brown and Company
    - Orion Publishing Group
      - Bounty Books
      - Conran Octopus
      - Cassell Illustrated
      - etc.
    - Armand Colin
    - Grasset
    - Hatier
    - Fayard
    - JC Lattès
    - Calmann-Levy
    - Dunod
    - Chambers Harrap
    - etc.
- Lagardère Travel Retail (commercial retail in airports)
  - Relay
  - Paradies Lagardère
  - etc.
- Lagardère News (media)
  - Le Journal du dimanche
  - and the Elle licence
- Lagardère Radio
  - Europe 1
  - Europe 2
  - and RFM
- Lagardère Live Entertainment (entertainment)
  - Casino de Paris, Arkéa Arena, Folies Bergère and Lagardère Paris Racing.
Prisma Media
- Femme actuelle
- Télé-Loisirs
- Prima
- Voici
- Geo (France)
- Ça m'Intéresse
- National Geographic (France)
- Neon
- Capital
- Management
- Harvard Business Review France
- Simone