confidentially speaking
The Africa Confidential Blog
BOLLORE'S TROUBLES AND FRANCAFRIQUE
Blue Lines
Just as France's President Emmanuel Macron was enjoying the
hospitality of United States'
President Donald Trump – both
self-styled mavericks – in Washington, investigators in Paris were
preparing to charge business titan Vincent
Bolloré with corruption over his contracts to operate ports in
Conakry and Lomé.
African and French business operators are asking whether the Paris
investigators had been emboldened by Macron's declaration that France
had to reform its economic relationship with Africa. Investigators are
also looking into claims that Société
Générale had paid bribes to win
contracts with Libya's
Investment Authority. Bolloré, with a net worth
of around US$6.5 billion, has a buccaneering style far closer to the
US's corporate culture than France's.
Although Bolloré's stake in the Vivendi media empire has raised
questions in Europe, it is his near monopoly on operating ports in West
and Central Africa that triggered the French investigation. The central
accusation is that the Guinea
government cancelled a port contract
awarded to another French company, Necotrans, and gave it to Bolloré,
whose communications company Havas had helped President Alpha Condé win
the 2015 election. Although Condé and Bolloré deny any wrongdoing, the
regional court in Abidjan ruled the annulling of Necotrans's contract
improper and ordered Guinea to pay the company €38.4 million in
compensation. Conakry is still contesting the order.
