France Telecom to buy stake in Le Monde

Paris: France Telecom is set to buy a stake in Le Monde, the chief executive said in an interview today, raising the prospect that the state will have indirect ownership in France's newspaper of record.

France Telecom's board of directors is scheduled to meet later today to consider the offer to buy a 34-percent-stake owned by the Lagardere group in Le Monde Interactif, the newspaper's online business, said Stephane Richard.

The offer is part of an overall deal being finalised by France Telecom along with the weekly Nouvel Observateur group and Spain's Prisa publishers, which own El Pais newspaper, to take a controlling stake in Le Monde.

"We have laid together the groundwork for an accord with Claude Perdriel and Prisa and it will be presented to the board of directors this evening," Richard told Le Journal du Dimanche. Perdriel is president of the Nouvel Observateur group.

France's flagship daily, Le Monde is being crushed by a mountain of debt and has put out a call to investors capable of injecting between USD 100 to 150 million to come to its aid.

A second trio of investors has answered the call: Pierre Berge, the ex-partner of the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, Lazard's top banker Matthieu Pigasse and Internet tycoon Xavier Niel.