Bolloré ready to sell its logistics activities in Africa
According to our information, the Morgan Stanley investment bank has started to survey buyers for Bolloré Africa Logistics, the group’s historic branch. The maritime carriers CMA CGM and Maersk are in the running.
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The Morgan Stanley investment bank has been tasked with quietly surveying the interest of potential buyers, including the big names in shipping. The French CMA CGM examines the case, as well as the Danish Maersk. The port operator Dubai Ports World and the Chinese Cosco Shipping, manager of the Greek port of Piraeus, could also join the ranks. While large private equity funds like Ardian or KKR are full of capital, most of them are limited, by their status, in their ability to invest in emerging countries. When asked, the group declined to comment.
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In Africa, where it employs 20,800 people, "Bolloré is present in 42 ports as a port terminal operator, shipping line agent or even a handler of non-containerized goods. It mainly manages 16 container terminals in Central and West Africa, 7 roll-on / roll-off terminals [“roll to enter”, “roll to exit”], 3 rail concessions, warehouses, dry ports, etc. », Specifies, in its annual report, the Breton group, led by Cyrille Bolloré, the youngest of the patriarch's sons.
Major judicial twist
The Bolloré Africa Logistics branch, which generated sales of 2.1 billion euros in 2020, would be valued between 2 billion and 3 billion euros. However, the perimeter likely to be sold does not seem fixed. Beyond its positions as an essential leader in Africa, the group manages a logistics and transport activity that claims to be among the top five European players, with a turnover of 3.7 billion euros and 12,500 employees. It is not excluded that some buyers are also eyeing these complementary businesses.
Vincent Bolloré is not the type to refuse a very good offer, even if that would leave essentially in the group which bears his name the communication, in other words Vivendi, the storage of electricity and financial participations. Conversely, note the regulars, nothing says that the transaction will be completed. In the past, the businessman has offered to sell large assets before giving up.
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This reflection on the future of Bolloré in Africa comes, in any case, after a major legal twist. In February 2021, Vincent Bolloré admitted his guilt for active bribery of a foreign public official and complicity in breach of trust in Africa. The Bolloré group was suspected of having paid for services provided by Havas, a subsidiary of Vivendi, provided during the election campaigns of the Togolese and Guinean presidents, in exchange for advantages concerning the ports of Lomé and Conakry. French justice began to investigate the case in 2012, following a report from Tracfin, the intelligence service that tracks fraud or money laundering.
At the end of 2019, the French logistics company suffered a serious setback with the non-renewal of the concession for the container terminal at the port of Douala (Cameroon), the main port in Central Africa.
This plea-guilty, in legal jargon, even though it has not been homologated by the Paris court, appears in public documents. In Togo, "the investigations have brought to light a corruption pact", indicates an order validating a judicial agreement of public interest of 26 February. In addition, on January 7, 2021, the legal entity Bolloré SE - the legal designation of the Bolloré group - admitted acts of corruption in Togo and agreed to pay a fine of 12 million euros. The company "has undertaken to submit, for a period of two years, to audits and verifications carried out by the French Anti-Corruption Agency".
Can these confessions hinder the group's progress in Africa? “It becomes very complicated to work with them. The international rules to which we are subject prohibit us from contracting with an entity which has recognized its participation in a corruption pact, ”relates a banker. A new owner would allow the meters to be put back