who is Pierre-Édouard Stérin, the controversial billionaire who wants to buy “Marianne”?

The Norman businessman, tax exile in Belgium since 2012, wants to acquire his first major media outlet, after failing to buy “Valeurs Currents”.

The weekly Marianne should change hands before the summer. The CMI France group, owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, has chosen to sell to an unknown person to the general public, who is discreetly interfering in the world of media: Pierre-Édouard Stérin. This 50-year-old Norman entrepreneur, 104th fortune in France in the magazine’s ranking Challengeshas been in tax exile in Belgium since the election of François Hollande in 2012. He assures us: he does not want to leave anything to his five children when he dies, preferring to give his money to a philanthropic structure.

Above all, he is a formidable businessman: Smartbox gift boxes are his. He also developed the restaurant reservation site “La Fourchette” (formerly “The Fork”, which he has since sold). And, more recently, it is becoming a financial partner of the Biarritz Olympique rugby club.

For a year and a half, he has made a series of forays into the media sector: if he tried to buy Current values 10 years ago and recently the publishing house Editis, in vain, Pierre-Edouard Stérin has shares in “Neo”, a video platform created by Bernard de La Villardière, financed the investigative site “Facteur” (which risks closing soon), has entered into the capital of “Crayon”, a YouTube debate channel. And if he takes hold of Marianne, it will be his biggest move in the world of the press. He has one month for the “exclusive negotiations” with Daniel Kretinsky come to fruition.

However, this possibility frightens the editorial staff of the weekly, of which Natacha Polony is editorial director. The profile of Pierre-Edouard Stérin does not really correspond to the editorial line of the magazine. When the candidate defines himself as “liberal, conservative and patriotic”, others consider him to be more of a traditionalist Catholic and far-right. So what is he doing Marianne, a left-wing title that defends sovereignism and secularism? If the businessman recognizes divergences of points of view, he affirms that the magazine gives voice to a voice that is too little present in the media field.

If he still shares the “anti-wokist” and anti-Macron tendency desired by Marianne, Pierre-Edouard Stérin hopes to see Natacha Polony remain at the head of the editorial staff. To convince her, he promised to preserve the editorial line and the independence of his journalists. Guarantees were not a foregone conclusion: the billionaire is the type to think that the owner of a newspaper does what he wants in his home. This is what he explained at the time of the strike to JDDbought by Vincent Bolloré.

Created in 1997 by journalists Jean-François Kahn and Maurice Szafran, Marianne has 55 press cards. At the initiative of the editorial management, a new formula was launched in March, with pagination reduced by half and a price dropping from 4.40 euros to 3.50 euros. This launch was a success, with single-issue sales increasing sharply and paper and digital subscriptions starting to rise again, according to CMI France. With 129,000 copies sold in 2023, Marianne saw its distribution drop by 1.3% compared to 2022. It remains behind its competitors Point, The Obs And The Express. Marianne lost 3 million euros last year, for 12 million euros in turnover.

As for the buyout price, Pierre-Edouard Stérin mentioned the sum of 10 million euros. Which would represent a nice added value for the seller Daniel Kretinsky, who had paid half of it five years ago to acquire Marianne. But in the meantime, he has invested 15 million in the magazine, which is still not profitable.