Is the end of the Bolloré group's activities in Africa soon?
The investment bank Morgan Stanley is in any case probing possible buyers for Bolloré Africa Logistics, as revealed by
Le Monde
.
The Bolloré group is a key player in logistics in Africa.
Present in 42 ports as a port operator, shipping line agent or cargo handler, it employs 21,000 people and generates 2.1 billion euros in turnover.
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This African activity is historic in the group: it dates from the takeover of the SCAC (commercial charter and fuel company) in 1986 by Vincent Bolloré.
The group
"does not comment on rumors concerning its transport and logistics activities"
.
But it is at a pivotal moment in its history, Vincent Bolloré having planned to retire next February.
It is unclear whether Morgan Stanley is working on the case on its own initiative or has been approached by Bolloré.
But Cyrille Bolloré, CEO of Bolloré Transports and Logistics, will undoubtedly look at the results of this work.
Whether this leads to a better valuation of these activities or to their effective sale, if the price is really very high.
Several possible candidates
The possible candidates are known.
Le Monde
quotes the Chinese Cosco Shipping, which operates the port of Piraeus in Greece, the Danish Maersk or the French CMA-CGM.
When questioned, the latter
"does not comment on the rumors"
.
This type of operation would make sense for CMA-CGM, since it has recently developed in logistics activities as shown by the takeover bid for Ceva Logistics.
The question of price could be problematic, however.
With the crisis, the logistics chain has become very tense, which benefits all players in the sector.
This means that they all have a lot of money that they could use to make acquisitions, but also that the asking price will be very high.
Everything will depend on the sustainability perceived by the potential buyer of this good orientation of the activity.