Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on September 26, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
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French billionaire Sterin joins a consortium to acquire Valeurs Actuelles, highlighting media influence in French politics ahead of the 2027 election.
By Sudip Kar-Gupta
PARIS (Reuters) -Pierre-Edouard Sterin, a conservative French billionaire looking to build up a media presence, is part of a consortium that has agreed to buy right-wing magazine Valeurs Actuelles, the parties involved in the deal said on Friday.
The move highlights the jostling for influence in French politics ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Sterin, who previously tried to buy media group Lagardere, joins other French billionaires who own top TV stations and newspapers, which could sway opinion in an electorate increasingly fractured between the far-left and far-right.
"The staff of weekly magazine Valeurs Actuelles were told this Friday of the planned takeover of their publication by the entrepreneurs Benjamin La Combe and Pierre-Edouard Sterin, as well as the Caude family," said the buyers' consortium in a statement. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Other French billionaires who own TV channels and news publications include Vincent Bollore, whose holding company is the biggest shareholder in Vivendi and who owns TV stations C News and Canal Plus, as well as LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, who owns business paper Les Echos.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-GuptaEditing by Mark Potter)
A consortium is a group of individuals or organizations that come together to achieve a common goal, often in business or finance, such as acquiring a company or undertaking a project.
Corporate governance involves the systems, principles, and processes by which a company is directed and controlled, ensuring accountability and fairness in its relationships with stakeholders.
An acquisition is the process by which one company purchases most or all of another company's shares to gain control of that company.
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