Posthumous payback

11 June 2004 By Rob Cox Follow @rob1cox

By selling stakes in Club Med and French property, the family harvested some E350m. But getting that to family members is complicated. The solution will likely be the longawaited reform of the Agnelli corporate cascade, starting with a buyback of Ifi’s preference shares.

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Accor, the French hotels company, said it acquired a 29% stake French tourism group Club Med by acquiring stakes held by the Agnelli family and a bank.

The Agnellis sold just over 21% of the company through their Exor and Ifil holding vehicles, leaving them with a residual combined stake of just below 3%.

Accor is paying E45 a share, a 31% premium to Thursday's closing price, for the stakes. The sales bring about E188m of cash into the Agnelli companies.

In addition, on June 9 Inmobiliaria Colonial, a Spanish real estate company, agreed to acquire almost 56% of Societe Fonciere Lyonnaise for E759m from a group of investors including the Agnelli family holding Exor, which owned 10% worth E164m.

The Agnelli family controls its investments through a series of holding companies, starting with the private Giovanni Agnelli & Co. This company controls Ifi, whose preference shares are publicly traded, and 70% of private Exor.

In turn, Ifi owns 62% of another public holding, Ifil and 30% of Exor. Ifil is the primary investment vehicle, comprising stakes in Fiat, SanPaolo Imi, Worms, Rinascente, Juventus and other companies.

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