The Economist - UK (2019-06-01)

56 TheEconomistJune 1st 2019

1

Compagnie

Imperial Saint-Gabriel

Mediterranean

Nord-Sumatra

Investissements†

ShareholdingsofselectedBolloréGroupcompanies

Regulatoryfilingsend-2018*andEconomistestimates

SFA

Plantationsdes

TerresRouges

AfricanInvestment

Company

SociétéIndustrielleet

Financièredel’Artois†

CompagnieduCambodge†

Financièredu

ChampdeMars

LaForestière

Équatoriale

Financière

Moncey

Varet

Listedcompany Gard†

Socfrance

Compagniedes

TramwaysdeRouen†

Transport&logistics

Ports,railways,pipelines

Communications

Newspapersandtelecoms

Batteries/industrial

Mainoperatingentities

Bolloré

Participations

VincentBolloré&family

Omnium

Bolloré

FinancièreV

Sofibol

Farming

Financière

del’Odet†

23.9%

26.3% 28.8%

Owns Ownedby

*Omitsshareholdingsunder1%

†BolloréParticipationsis represented

ontheboardofdirectors

‡NotcontrolledbyBolloré

BolloréSA†

Vivendi

UniversalMusic

Canal+

Havas

Others

BlueSolutions(batteries)

Socfin†‡

IER

Otherindustrials

TelecomItalia‡

Mediaset‡

Plantations

50.2%

50.3%

5 1.1%

55.3%

63.8%

Owns100%of

W

ho is france’sgreatest capitalist?

Americans might think this question

is the beginning of a joke. Those who take it

seriously may finger Vincent Bolloré, who

over nearly four decades has built an em-

pire spanning African ports and French

pipelines, pay-tv, electric cars, the world’s

biggest music label and much else besides.

On May 29th the 67-year-old stepped down

from the board of Bolloré sa, the holding

company at his complex empire’s core. At

an annual meeting outside Paris, he air-

kissed fawning shareholders one last time

and, as a parting gift, gave each one three

bottles of wine (from a Bolloré vineyard).

With sales of €23bn ($25.6bn) and

81,000 employees around the globe, Bol-

loré Group testifies to its boss’s knack for

business. A more sober assessment of his

reign reveals a complicated legacy. The ty-

coon emerges as a flawed exemplar of capi-

talism. His heirs should draw lessons.

Though from 1822 five generations had

built a Bolloré bible-and-cigarette-paper

concern in Brittany, Vincent is what the

French call un self-made man. In 1981, still in

his 20s, he paid a couple of francs for the

family concern, which had fallen into the

hands of its creditors—a quixotic move for

an up-and-coming investment banker.

Mr Bolloré’s dynastic industrial ambi-

tions, admired in French business circles,

were soon paired with stockmarket raids à

l’américaine, which were not. Not for him

the polite ways of Parisian business, nor its

endless cocktail circuit. He is part activist

investor, part private-equity financier in a

country which has little love for either; a

corporate “pirate” eyeing the shareholder

registers of august companies, whose fam-

ily owners did not appreciate it. Some fell

under his control, such as a shipping group

that then formed the backbone of a logis-

tics operation which now runs 16 container

terminals in Africa. Others, like Bouygues,

a construction group, and Lazard, a blue-

blooded bank, persuaded less outré parties

to buy his stake at a hefty premium.

Stodgy French capitalism can use an

outsider to shake it up. But Mr Bolloré’s

norm-flouting has a less laudable side. For

one thing, his touch is not as golden as

some make it out to be. He has on occasion

ridden roughshod over the principles of

modern corporate governance. Lastly, he

and Bolloré sa face charges of corruption,

which both deny.

Start with the business. Mr Bolloré is a

risk-taker of the sort every economy needs.

Investors who bought shares in Bolloré sa

30 years ago, soon after it listed, have made

their money back 40 times over, compared

with eight times for France’s cac 40 blue-

chip index. Its market capitalisation is now

€12bn. The empire around it comprises 457

businesses. A simple total of their market

caps gets to nearly €70bn. The three main

pillars are logistics, batteries and media.

The logistics and pipelines business

has been the most successful. It includes

ports in Africa, where Bolloré sasays it has

invested €4bn, plus a freight-forwarding

arm, three African rail concessions and

French oil terminals. Analysts value it at

€8bn or so, roughly half of Bolloré sa’s val-

ue including debt. It faces stiffer competi-

tion than it did, but margins are healthy.

Those profits appear mostly to have

been offset by losses from another tran-

Vincent Bolloré

Empire builder

PARIS

Untangling a French tycoon’s complicated legacy

Business

58 Bartleby:Askandyoushallreceive

59 BigOilandclimatechange

59 Opioid-makersontrial

60 ThenextstageofRocketInternet

61 RenaultandFiatChrysler

62 Schumpeter: iPhoney war

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