(Ecofin Agency) - The French billionaire Vincent Bolloré (picture) plans to retire on February 17, 2022, date at which the Bolloré Group will be celebrating two centuries.

Before trusting the “empire” to his offspring, the man who keeps resisting politics, regulators, minority shareholders, uses Vivendi, where he holds a 21% stake, to absorb major broadcasting, communication and video games firms of Italy and France.

Though the group is doing everything to hold a majority stake in Vivendi, results are mitigated. Indeed, the slump in the net treasury from 8 billion euros in 2015 to 500 million euros in June 2017, the battle with Sylvio Berlusconi in the Vivendi-Mediaset series, issues with the law in the various countries in which it operates, its multiple fights with the press, the tumbling of its Canal+ subscriptions in France, are many reasons suggesting that Bolloré’s investors could give up on the group quite soon.  

Bolloré is present in about 40 African nations. The billionaire’s group more or less manages 37 ports in Africa, including 23 dry ones.

Bolloré Africa Logistics also expands in the continent’s railway industry. It has in this regard, won a major project to rehabilitate close to 1,300km of railway going from Abidjan to Ouagadougou. The project is valued at €2.5 billion.  

Fiacre E. Kakpo