(News Bulletin 247) – Bolloré Group has announced that it will launch public takeover bids to delist three subsidiaries. The market, for its part, seems to be thinking about the next step.

The Bolloré family companies represent a complex universe. Beyond Vivendi (of which Groupe Bolloré owns a little less than 30%) and Groupe Bolloré, this galaxy includes many companies, several of which are listed with a very small share of capital held by minorities.

And very high nominals (the face price of a share). The three “most expensive” shares on the Paris Stock Exchange are none other than three companies nested in this meccano: Financière Moncey (8,350 euros at Thursday’s close), Compagnie du Cambodge (7,400 euros), and Société industrielle et financière de l’Artois (5,500 euros). These three companies come from the old galaxy of Banque Rivaud, which Vincent Bolloré took control of in 1997.

On Thursday evening, Groupe Bolloré launched a major simplification of this universe.

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Getting the minorities out

The company announced that it would launch public takeover bids (three in total) on Financière Moncey, Compagnie du Cambodge and Société industrielle et financière (SIF) de l’Artois. This will result in the exit of minority shareholders (i.e. shareholders other than Groupe Bolloré or a company associated with the group) and the withdrawal from the stock market of these three companies.

Incidentally, the nominal values ​​of Financière Moncey and Compagnie du Cambodge shares will be divided by one hundred, after a general meeting scheduled for the end of October.

Minority shareholders in each company will have two options: either to be paid in cash or in Universal Music Group shares, with Bolloré Group owning more than 18% of the Amsterdam-listed record company.

For example, Financière Moncey shareholders will have the choice between a cash payment of 118 euros per share or 5.17 Universal Music Group shares for one Financière Moncey share. This represents a premium of 44% compared to the weighted average price of the share over one month. For Compagnie du Cambodge and SIF Artois, the premiums retained were 27% and 71% on these same bases.

According to the annual reports of each company, shareholders not linked to the Bolloré galaxy represented, at the end of 2023, respectively 3.71% of the capital for Financière Moncey, 0.77% of that of Compagnie du Cambodge, and 4.2% of that of SIF Artois.

The market is thinking about what’s next

According to Oddo BHF, the maximum cash outflow for Groupe Bolloré in these transactions (assuming that no minority shareholder opts for Universal Music Group shares) would be around 225 million euros. This is modest in light of Groupe Bolloré’s net cash (cash minus debt), which stood at 6 billion euros at the end of June.

The market, however, seems to be thinking about the next step. Bolloré Group is up 5.4% on the Paris Stock Exchange after these announcements, while Compagnie de l’Odet, the holding company that owns 67% of Bolloré Group, is up 9.3%.

“Let us recall that these structures (the three companies targeted by takeover bids, Editor’s note), located under (Groupe) Bolloré, hold a large portion of the shares of the structures above (i.e. those which control Bolloré). These withdrawal offers will therefore allow Bolloré to hold directly (and without a minority) the minority stakes of its ‘parent’ structures including Compagnie de l’Odet, Financière V etc.,” Oddo BHF emphasizes.

The broker adds that these takeover bids will simplify and make the structure more readable while reducing “a little” the costs linked to the listing of Groupe Bolloré.

Above all, these delistings of the three companies could constitute a preliminary step to a larger operation “such as the merger between Compagnie de l’Odet and Groupe Bolloré”, Oddo BHF suggests.

Thus, these announcements could be “the sign of a larger operation in 2025, which would create significantly more value,” concludes the broker.