Great reorganization of the investment fund following the agreement between Bernard Arnault and Suez-Lyonnaise. This fund owns two of the greatest start-ups on the French Riviera, Aucland and Respublica.fr.
Reorganization at the Europ@web managership. The former Elf CEO, Philippe Jaffré, will be at the head of investment fund created by Bernard Arnault. The top management will be given to Ghislain Lescuyer who managed the start-up incubator of the group. Charam Becherat, Europ@web director, will join LVMH in the first three months of 2001. This new Europ@web is a result of the agreement which occurred late November between the Arnault group and Suez-Lyonnaise.
In this agreement, in which a section deals with the operating of a future UMTS licence, Bernard Arnault leaves 30% of his shares to Suez-Lyonnaise. However he keeps 70% of the shares as a whole. That's a good bargain : the agreement makes the fund up to 1 billion euros, what doubles the initial investment which was of 500 million euros.
The economy of the French Riviera is very interested in such a restructuring. Europ@web is very present in Sophia Antipolis. It now controls the whole auction start-up Aucland, which is entering its new structure. Through the Liberty Surf branch, it as well owns Respublica.fr, the virtual communities site created by Christophe Dupont. That's a start-up which is going to leave the bosom of Europ@web. Liberty Surf, like ZeBank, eLuxury and Akka Technology, has been placed out of the investment fund…