Prouvost group

"Arnault sells most of Boussac Saint-Frères' textile activities to the Prouvost group. In return, Boussac receives 27% of the capital of Lainière holding, valued at 300 million. To obscure the matter, Arnault will invest 250 million (21% of the capital) in Vitos Établissements Vitoux (VEV), the holding company that controls Prouvost. This allows him to say: "We are not selling. I am investing 250 million and becoming the second-largest shareholder in what has become one of the largest European textile companies." But it is indeed a disengagement. And these 250 million are, on a larger scale, similar to the money given to the International Cotton Company to buy the factories Boussac wanted to get rid of: in both cases, it is the seller who pays the buyer! It's all a matter of packaging."

"The Agache-Willot group indeed had, with its retail subsidiaries, Conforama and Le Bon Marché, its real estate companies: Belle Jardinière, its industrial real estate, its 4,500 homes, and its exceptional properties such as the Mivoisin estate, a considerable asset base generating significant income and free of mortgages. Indeed, 70% of the capital of the Conforama and Dior companies had been pledged to the banks since August 1980, but the direct competitors of the group, like DMC or the Prouvost group, are in an economic and financial situation that is hardly more brilliant without having such a considerable mass of assets."

"• - The Ferinel group, with a turnover of one billion, a major real estate group from the North, specialized in leisure real estate and in the construction of individual houses. Bernard Arnault is already ahead thanks to the agreement that has just been signed with the brothers; • - The Prouvost group, with a turnover of 7 billion, led by Christian Derveloy, the leading European wool group, which benefits from the support of Georges Plescoff, who has already worked on this file at the request of IDI; • - The Bidermann group, with a turnover of 3.4 billion, led by Georges Jollès, who was, it must be remembered, for more than three months, the general manager of CBSF and who therefore knows the dossier perfectly; • - Bernard Tapie, with a turnover of 4 billion, who lets it be known that he is also a candidate to take over the business and announces having the support of banks and investors to close a round of funding, thanks especially to an Arab businessman and American banks."