- December 21, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
Billionaire French industrialist Vincent Bolloré is in talks to sell his family-owned group’s ports and logistics business in Africa to transportation giant MSC Group in a sign of how the pandemic has left container shipping companies flush with cash for acquisitions.
Bolloré Group said on Monday that it had entered into exclusive talks with MSC based on an enterprise value of €5.7bn, net of debt and minority interests, and that negotiations would continue until the end of March.
The unit brought in €2.1bn in revenue last year, has a presence in 42 ports, and operates 16 container terminals in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria, among other countries.
If concluded, the divestment would be a change in strategy for Vincent Bolloré, who spent decades building up influence in French-speaking west Africa so as to be able to secure lucrative long-term concessions from governments there to run ports and transportation routes.
It would leave…
