The group has concluded the sale of its port terminals and its rail lines to the Italo-Swiss shipowner MSC.
By Jean-Michel Bezat
It was the last nice blow from Vincent Bolloré, before letting go of his group’s reins to his son Cyrille, in February 2022: the sale at a very high price of Bolloré Africa Logistics (BAL) at the Italian shipowner -Suisse Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). All the regulatory and competition authorities having given their green light at the end of November, the operation could be completed three months in advance on the scheduled calendar: the two groups must initiate, Wednesday, December 21, an operation of an amount 5.7 billion euros, a year to the day after their exclusivity agreement.
Without the Pandemic of COVVI-19, which exploded the freight prices in 2020-2021 and the profits of the container ships, the Breton businessman probably would never have received an offer too Luxury for assets rather valued between 2 and 3 billion euros before the health crisis. The family group has earned a lot of money in Africa over the past thirty years. First shareholder of Vivendi (29.5 %), he will have new means to invest in the media, where he continues to gain power and influence.
The case with MSC has been completed, and without international tenders. “Bal installations could have failed in the portfolio of investor capital or a sovereign fund, and I do not think it would have been a good option, neither for the continuity of ball activities nor for Africa “, Explained at the end of May the president of the MSC group, Diego Aponte, in an interview with Jeune Afrique. No one wanted these assets to fall into the purse of a Gulf State, or the Singaporean Olam, even less in that of the Chinese Cosco Shipping, which sees it escape an export capacity of African raw materials to the Empire of Environment. And especially not the French government, which would undoubtedly have preferred the choice of the Marseillais CMA CGM.
an important chapter which closes
It is an important chapter in the history of the Empire of Vincent Bolloré who closes. He had opened it in 1986 with the acquisition of the SCAC (trading and transport) in Suez, then that of the Delmas armament in 1991. At the rate of 200 million investments per year, according to a source close to the file, Bal has become the first continent’s first transport-logistics network. A sector that has changed deep in recent years with the emergence of shipowners as powerful as MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM, Cosco, Hapag-Lloyd or Evergreen. They are now developing in terrestrial logistics and have more means for heavy investments.
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