Arnaud Lagardère, the general and managing partner of Lagardère, said that he does not expect the financial results of the French media and defence conglomerate’s sports marketing division to improve before 2014.
“We do not expect an improvement until 2014. The 2013 calendar is not conducive to sport,” Lagardère said after the Lagardère Unlimited division, which owns the IEC in Sports, Sportfive and World Sport Group rights agencies, registered a five-per-cent fall year-on-year in half-yearly revenue to €213 million ($262 million) and an operating loss of €20 million for the first six months of 2012.
Lagardère has also set aside a provision for risk of €22 million on Sportfive’s agreement with the International Olympic Committee to sell broadcast rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games in 40 European market. This indicates that the company expects to make a loss of €22 million on the deal.
Under a deal agreed by the IOC and Sportfive in February 2009, the agency guaranteed the IOC €236.5 million. Ninety-per-cent of the guaranteed figure has been secured, Lagardère executive Alain Lemarchand said.
In March, Lagardère confirmed a €550 million writedown in the value of Lagardère Unlimited, as the group announced a net loss of €707 million in its full-year results for 2011.
Lagardère said that the conglomerate’s total net profit in the first half of 2012 rose by 28.6 per cent to €36 million, and added that the company had begun discussions with media group Vivendi about listing their jointly-owned 20-per-cent stake in pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus.
Volatile stock market conditions scuppered previous plans for the flotation, but Lagardère said that it remained one of the company’s “main priorities.”
STORY UPDATED ON 31 AUGUST 2012