| Groupe Madrigall | |
| Type: | Société anonyme |
| Industry: | Publishing |
| Location City: | Paris |
| Location Country: | France |
| Key People: | Antoine Gallimard |
Groupe Madrigall is a French publishing holding company. It is the parent company of several publishing houses and distribution companies including: Éditions Gallimard, Flammarion and Casterman.[1] Groupe Madrigall is the third largest French publishing group.[2]
Groupe Madrigall[3] is a holding company founded in 1992.[4] It is controlled by Antoine Gallimard, director of Éditions Gallimard, and his sister Isabelle Gallimard, director of Mercure de France. Groupe Madrigall took over a majority share in Éditions Gallimard in the late 1990s. At the end of the 1990s, the Gallimard family repurchased shares from two of the company's three main corporate shareholders, namely the Italian publisher Einaudi (then owned by the holding company of Silvio Berlusconi, Fininvest via Arnoldo Mondadori Editore) and the French media agency Havas. Havas was forced to sell its shares after it was ruled that Havas's merger with Vivendi rendered it a direct competitor. As a result, Madrigall had a 60 percent majority holding in Éditions Gallimard. In January 2003, Madrigall repurchased the Gallimard holdings of five other outside shareholders for . As a result, Madrigall had a 98 percent majority holding.[5]
In September 2012, Madrigall acquired Groupe Flammarion, previously owned by the Italian RCS MediaGroup, for .[6]
In October 2013, the French conglomerate LVMH acquired a stake of up to 9.5% in Groupe Madrigall to the tune of, in particular to pay off Groupe Madrigall's debt after the purchase of Flammarion in 2012.[7]