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Gallimard c.e.o. Antoine Gallimard has said the company is about to submit an offer to buy RCS MediaGroup's French subsidiary, Flammarion, despite previously denying reports.
According to French trade publication Livres Hebdo, although Italy's RCS has delayed its decision to shed non-strategic assets, "all the signs show they will put the Flammarion group up for sale in the next few weeks," Gallimard said.
He acknowledged he had already told RCS he was interested in the acquisition, but declined to confirm an offer price of €198m. The company has been valued at €200m.
Gallimard said the deal was "a great opportunity". The two houses are complementary—Flammarion has a more contemporary editorial policy than Gallimard—and he thinks highly of the personnel. Flammarion c.e.o. Teresa Cremisi was Gallimard's editorial director for 16 years before taking up her present post in 2005.
The combined group would be France's third largest publisher after Hachette Livre and Editis, with annual sales of about €450m. In Livres Hebdo's last ranking, Flammarion placed seventh and Gallimard eighth. If the deal goes through, Gallimard said the two houses would remain autonomous, each with its own distribution channels.