Vivendi, Amber Lose Court Fight to Grab Lagardere Board Seats

Vivendi SA and activist investor Amber Capital have lost a key legal battle in their effort to gain board seats in troubled retail, media and publishing group Lagardere SCA.

The Paris Commercial Court ruled on Wednesday that the companies, Lagardere’s largest shareholders, couldn’t force it to hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting in order to nominate new board members.

Vivendi and Amber “don’t demonstrate with the required level of proof that they are pursuing another objective than that of their own interests,” and that the nominations they seek would help the company achieve better results, the court said.

The decision ...