The PMU sinks into an unprecedented disaster | EUROtoday

On Apr 10, 2025

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.

LE PMU, historic pillar of French horse racing, crosses an unprecedented storm. This Thursday, April 10, on the General Assembly of shareholders organized in Longchamp, the 2024 price range was rejected at 51 % of the votes. A choice that marks a turning level within the historical past of this establishment, by no means confronted with such a state of affairs since its creation. This rejection, the fruit of inside tensions and deep disagreements, questions.

As a bunch of financial curiosity, the PMU’s mission is to take care of balanced accounts, an important crucial for the redistribution of income. The latter are divided between its two founding associations, the Société du Trot and France Galop, which reinjects them into the ecosystem of horse racing: breeders, house owners, coaches, and different actors within the sector.

The outcomes of the 12 months 2024 confirmed indicators of weak spot. The points recorded had been 4 % decrease than forecasts, and the monetary contribution was restricted to 837 million euros, beneath the hoped for 851 million. However, it was not this poor efficiency that brought on the price range rejection.

Rately outlook for 2025

Opposed to the approval of the price range, the corporate of the Trot denounced a presentation of the unsatisfactory price range, though validated by the auditors and the board of administrators of the PMU. According to its representatives, the 2024 price range doesn’t faithfully replicate the operational actuality of the corporate. Among the discord factors, the resumption of 19 million euros and the depreciation of sure wage prices have crystallized the tensions.

In view of this vote, the corporate of the Trot struck on the door of sixty racing corporations, which all weigh collectively lower than 5 % of the vote, to persuade them to additionally oppose the approval of the accounts. Thirty of them joined his camp, thus making it potential to change the vote and to reject the price range. For its half, France Galop, which holds 46 % of the voting rights, supported the adoption of the price range, however with out success.

Towards a change on the head of the PMU?

A brand new board of administrators should be summoned with the intention to examine the accounts, and to entry the request of the trotting and its allies to current the completely different price range. It is simply then that the price range can return to the vote on the common assembly. This step, removed from fixing tensions, might effectively exacerbate the divisions even inside the subsidiary.

Discovery across the 2024 price range is a part of an already tense context, the place the prospects for 2025 come to blacken the image much more. The first projections announce a drop in points between -4 % and -5 % in comparison with forecasts, an alarming sign for an sector which struggles to regain its dynamism. In addition, the 2 mom corporations have contacted a head hunter in view, presumably, to nominate a brand new president and a brand new managing director.

To uncover

The kangaroo of the day

Answer

In a press launch printed on the finish of the vote, the PMU tried to reassure: “PMU deplores a decision that weakens the sector and should not start the confidence of its customers and partners.”

This disaster comes because the General Inspectorate of Finance launched an in -depth investigation into the horse sector. The first stage of the conclusions of this investigation is anticipated for the tip of April. Some observers already worry an elevated intervention by the State, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Bercy, who train guardianship on the PMU.

https://www.lepoint.fr/economie/le-pmu-s-enfonce-dans-une-crise-inedite-10-04-2025-2587054_28.php