• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, December 2, 2014

Bollore Group shareholders approved a stock split late last week that was necessary for the group’s tender offer for Havas Group to proceed as planned. Separately, AMF, the French financial authority has approved the offer, ruling that it is in compliance with applicable regulations.

The offer was approved earlier by the Havas board after an independent review concluded that the proposal offered fair value to Havas shareholders. With the approvals, the tender offer went into effect Monday and will be open until January 9, 2015.

Bollore has proposed a stock offering through two of its subsidiaries that would swap nine shares of Bollore stock for five shares of Havas. That ratio takes into account the approved split of Bollore shares. The company said the implied premium over the value of Havas shares (on Oct. 19, when the offer was made) was 19.5%.

Bollore has controlled Havas since 2005, when Vincent Bollore became CEO of the ad-marketing holding company, which owns Havas Worldwide, Arnold, Havas Media and other agencies. Bollore’s son Yannick took over as CEO in January.

Bollore owns about one-third of Havas now and said in its offering that it wants to own a majority of the firm, but not 100%.