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)
