The Lagardère Group has achieved fourth position within a prominent ranking of the top 120 French listed companies based on the proportion of women on executive bodies.

In an announcement made yesterday at the French National Assembly, the Paris-headquartered Group earned an overall score of 88.71/100 in the ninth edition of the Palmarès de la féminisation des instances dirigeantes des entreprises du SBF 120.

Women account for 65% of Lagardère’s total workforce with the gender balance reflected carefully in the share of female senior executives.

Sixty-two-and-a-half percent of the Board of Directors are female, with all three committees (Audit Committee, Appointments, Remuneration and CSR Committee, and Ad hoc Committee) chaired by women.

The share of women on the Executive Committee is 42.85%, while 44% of top executives across the company are female.

The weighted gender equality index across all Group companies is 90.62/100, based on 2021 data.

Introduced in 2013 and published by the Ministry of Gender Equality, Diversity and Equal Opportunities, the league table assesses the 120 largest French companies each year for their commitment to the representation of women on their executive bodies and, more generally, to gender equality at work.

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Arnaud Lagardère, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lagardère SA, commented: “I am especially proud of this ranking, which recognises the progress the Group has made over the last few years as a result of the unwavering commitment of general management together with all of the HR and CSR teams, who have long understood that our performance is grounded in the balanced representation of our people at all levels of the company.

“Above all, this ranking will spur us on to press ahead with our proactive policy aimed at achieving further progress in the areas of diversity and inclusion.”

In separate but important news, on 25 October it emerged that a notification on the proposed acquisition of Lagardère by French media conglomerate Vivendi SE had completed and the notification has been filed with the European Commission.

The high-profile takeover of Lagardère by Vivendi SE was nearing a conclusion at the time Lagardère published its half-year results in July.

A friendly public tender offer finalised in June, which resulted in Vivendi increasing the share capital it owned in Lagardère to 57.35%.

Vivendi crossed the 50% capital line in May this year having acquired the shares held in Lagardère by then-shareholder Amber Capital in December 2021.