African Affairs Vincent Bolloré is in the viewfinder of French judges. The Bolloré Tower, including the headquarters of Bolloré Africa Logistics Group, was the subject of a search Friday 8 April at Puteaux in a survey on the conditions for granting concessions port of Conakry (Guinea) and Lomé (Togo), as revealed in Le Monde . The raid was conducted as part of a judicial inquiry entrusted to financial judges, Serge Tournaire and Aude Buresi, including door on suspicion of “bribery foreign public official “. Here’s what to know these African operations that justice look closely.
The role of Havas in question
for thirty years the Bolloré group made Africa one of the major axes of development. Bolloré Africa Logistics, the branch “Africa” group, for example realizes a turnover of € 2.5 billion, almost as much as its branch “energy” (EUR 2.7 billion). The group also generates a quarter of its sales in Africa, and employs 25,000 people on the continent. A business that relies primarily on the management of ports – Bolloré manages 16 port concessions, mainly in West Africa. What the investigations of the French justice? “The police are wondering if the Breton billionaire group Havas advertising used his arm to facilitate the obtaining of port management in Guinea Conakry and Lome, Togo,” wrote Le Monde .
It is investigating the relationship of Francis Perez, president of Pefaco group, a company specializing in the hospitality and gaming and very established in Africa, that investigators were led to consider the African activities of the Breton industrial.
According to Le Monde , Francis Perez among its relationship Jean -Philippe Doran, one of the executives of Havas (60% owned by Bolloré), which is “particularly busy in 2010 Guinean presidential candidate Alpha Condé campaign.” Tuesday, Olivier Baratelli, counsel for the Bolloré group, denied any link between the management of the presidential campaign of Alpha Condé Havas and obtaining the management of the port of Conakry. “The group is not part of or involved in the criminal investigation,” he said in particular. Contacted by Challenges a spokesman Havas has meanwhile said that the group has “ceased all communication policy since 2011,” was “surprised” to these revelations.
the battle around the port of Conakry
the latter had been a real fight Franco -Française 5 years ago. Alpha Conde elected president in November 2010, was terminated on 8 March 2011, by decree, the concession agreement of the Conakry port container terminal granted in 2008 for a period of 25 years at the French logistician Necotrans, present in 31 countries African. And a few days later, had Necotrans brutally ejecting Guinean waters for the benefit of the Bolloré group. “It was a unilateral and violent decision of President Alpha Condé, indicated in Challenges last September a source close to the case. Overnight, the Guinean security forces have dislodged for some across the square to the other. ”
Then follows a violent legal battle between the two French groups – including Bolloré was sentenced in 2013 to pay 2.1 million euros to its competitor. But as stated Challenges in April 2015, the hatchet between the two groups tricolor is now buried. Bolloré and Necotrans who entrust have “pacified (their) relations,” are positioned regularly on calls for different rates: the container to Bolloré, the versatile, bulk and oil logistics for Necotrans. A return to better feelings justified in particular by competition from Asian groups and the Gulf countries have benefited in recent years of the Franco-French squabble – as the operator of Dubai, DP World, which manages the port’s container terminal Dakar, one of the bastions of the Bolloré group in Africa. “ This quarrel was not good for the image of France on the continent or to their business” stated Challenges an adviser to Francois Hollande in September.
a similar case in Togo
Kribi offers the call was in fact a perfect example, in the summer of 2015, since that Bolloré and its partners won container terminal management, while the operation of the multipurpose terminal has returned to Necotrans. The lightning visit – six hours – in Cameroon, in July, Francois Hollande, had been particularly decisive for the Bolloré group that won a tender hitherto bad start
But. another case drew the attention of judges the Bolloré group’s activities in Africa. It is a question of Togo. S nder Le Monde , Jean-Philippe Dorent was also responsible for a part of the communication of the young Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe, son of Gnassingbe Eyadema. In 2010, the year of the re-election of Gnassingbe junior, the Bolloré Group won the concession of the Lomé Port container terminal for a period of 35 years. A decision also challenged by a competitor, Jacques Dupuydauby, former associate of Bolloré in Togo, which has multiplied the judicial remedies to denounce the conditions in which he considers to have been evicted.
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