Finance and Treasury Manager – Bolloré SA
“We do not really have the cash pooling, we just have merged accounts on a scale”
La Lettre du Trésorier
Have you been with the group since it was formed?
Marc Bebon
I was extremely lucky to meet Vincent Bolloré by chance twenty-five years ago. At that time he was very young and had just bought back his family business from finance companies. The paperworks specialised in Bible paper, tea bags, carbon paper and wrapping tissue etc. All these activities have since been sold, apart from the polypropylene film used for capacitators, an area in which we are still one of the world market leaders. I believed in Vincent and his dynamic nature, disregarding the fact that the latest accounts were more than mediocre! And I have not been disappointed, far from it. What an adventure!
We are now one of the 500 biggest companies in the world, having increased revenues from an equivalent of €60 million to €6 billion. The group operates in 104 countries and employs 31,000 people.
LdT
Did you have any experience of the treasury function?
MB: I was experienced firstly in the banking sector where I started on core activities. Notably I represented my bank on the Chambre de Compensation des Banquiers de Paris, the Paris Bankers’ Clearing House, under the number 43, the Banque de France being number 1. The work was manual. All the large banks were located in premises situated in front of the artists’ exit at the Olympia, and physically exchanged cheques, bills of exchange and transfers three times a day, often in a very lively atmosphere. Afterwards, I joined the finance department of Sulzer, a subsidiary of a Swiss manufacturing company. The treasury function was in its early days at that time and we used a pencil and rubber on large sheets of graph paper. The AFTE had only just been formed.
The Bolloré Group now carries out several activities which are not closely related to each other?
MB: Vincent Bolloré’s policy is to have a diversified group in order to share the risks and to perpetuate the whole group.
We are now one of the 500 biggest companies in the world, having increased revenues from an equivalent of €60 million to €6 billion.
At present, the transport sector accounts for two-thirds of our revenues and comprises two activities. Firstly, the Transport Commission, which covers the organisation of transport with a network of 445 branches in 80 countries. Secondly, we are the market leader in port logistics in Africa, with 5,680 vehicles and trailers and three million square metres of platforms and warehouse space. Through Bolloré Energie, we have become the second-biggest French distributor of domestic fuel with 400,000 clients, and a significant logistics player in the oil industry, mainly through the Donge-Mehum-Metz oil pipeline.
Based on its expertise in thin papers, the Group started to move towards the manufacture of plastic films for capacitators before diversifying into shrinkwrap paper for packaging. In Thonon and in the Vosges region, we also produce thin papers used for legal publishing, religious works, industrial catalogues, direct marketing and pharmaceutical instructions.
Our subsidiary IER is the market leader, supplying large transport networks with ticketing systems and is a significant player in access control systems and radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. [[[PAGE]]]
Following many years of research, the group has developed a high-performance electrical battery and a prototype of a fully electric-powered vehicle, the Bluecar, opening up major prospects in terms of combating pollution.
Another sector in which we operate is communications and the media. This includes a television channel, Direct 8 on TNT (since 2005), two free newspapers Direct Soir and Matin Plus in conjunction with Le Monde with print runs of 1,200,000, a stake in Euro Media Television which runs the former SFP, Mac Mahon, the arthouse and experimental cinema in Paris. In addition we have acquired 12 Wimax licences, the wireless process which allows users to connect to the internet anywhere. In the advertising sector, we have a 32% stake in Havas, the world’s sixth-biggest advertising agency, 29.9% of Aegis, a marketing services company in the UK, and a large stake in the opinion poll company CSA. Our diversified segment includes a 40% stake in one of the world’s biggest oil palm and hevea plantations covering 140,000 hectares in Indonesia, a directly-operated plantation in Cameroon, three farms in Georgia (peanuts and cotton), two vineyards in the South of France, not forgetting the stake in the Italian bank, Mediobanca, and 4% in Vallourec.
In this diversified context how does the treasury function operate?
MB: We do not have a real cash pooling system but with active trigger points in each division and accounts merged on a scale, we are able to manage cash on a daily basis in the group. We need to keep the management board informed of this and, if required, give any explanations about gaps.
Does the group have debt?
We diversify our sources of finance and give preference to the long term.
MB: Yes, in reasonable portions, which I find easier to manage than surplus cash, particularly in these slightly odd times. We do not have a rating, despite the fact that we have several listings (under Bolloré, Finanicère de L’Odet and the companies which are part of the Rivaud group, in which we own between 75% and 90% of the capital, including Financière Moncey, Artois, Compagnie de Cambodge etc). This is simply because we do not raise funds on the market. We finance our growth from the cash flow generated by our activities and the capital gains realised from various financial transactions such as Bouygues, Rue Impériale de Lyonnaise des Eaux and Vallourec. Over the past ten years, the group has acquired minority interests at a cost of €1.8 billion, strengthening the Bolloré family’s control and making it possible to conduct a long- and medium-term investment policy without external pressure. We diversify our sources of finance and give preference to the long term. We use the entire range of credit options, including a syndicated credit, under terms which I consider to be reasonable for the banks, private placements subscribed to by American investors, mobilisations of commercial credits under the Dailly regime (less glamorous than securitisation but still very efficient and competitive. I am really sorry that Senator Dailly has not exported this form of finance to Africa). We have also been trying to bring to life our treasury notes programme for a few months now, which is not a very easy process.
Which banks do you work with?
MB: Mainly with big French banks, although 50% of the revenues come from outside France. To my mind, we do not work enough with foreign banks which do not have large presence in France and are not always prepared to invest in analysing the group which is considered to be somewhat atypical.
Interview by Sophie Rack