The Saadé family may be from Latakia, Syria, and have prospered in Marseille, but in the eyes of the Lebanese they remain a symbol of the success of the diaspora. In the land of the Cedars, nothing seems to be stopping the Mediterranean expansion of the shipping company CMA CGM and its CEO, Rodolphe Saadé, who obtained, in March, the management of the container terminal at the port of Beirut for ten years.
The Franco-Lebanese carrier had never ceased to announce its ambitions for this port. Already in 1995, his father Jacques Saadé promoted a clear strategy for the harbor of Beirut, recalling that the civil war had not only destroyed its infrastructure but also its trade flows. This contract was finally awarded to an Anglo-Lebanese consortium in 2004.
“The whole coast is in Rodolphe Saadé, as in the time of Alexandre Le Grand”
Only, the severe economic crisis and the explosion of the port of Beirut in August 2020 allowed CMA CGM to do a double blow, since it bought the management of the container terminal of the port of Tripoli in February 2021, before that of Beirut. “The whole coast is now in Rodolphe Saadé, as in the time of Alexandre Le Grand”, says a Lebanese businessman who, like many, requests anonymity.
Image taken from AFPTV video showing the collapse of a new part of the grain silos at the port of Beirut, on August 23, 2022 in Lebanon
afp.com/Dylan COLLINS
All the sources interviewed by L’Express, from economic circles and the Lebanese power, praise the “good reputation” and the “sharp business sense” of the Saadé family. We note in particular the “aggressive strategy of Rodolphe Saadé”, who “buys everything, with a vengeance”, up to the market leader in pistachios and other savory aperitifs, Al Rifaï. “This allows the Saades to sell part of their money blocked in Lebanese banks”, justifies a local businessman. Indeed, since the start of the financial crisis in 2019, banking institutions have imposed drastic restrictions and the currency has lost more than 95% of its value.
But at the height of the storm, the Saadé family made a point of showing that it was not giving up on Lebanon, as evidenced by its numerous investments. After the creation of a dry port in the Bekaa Valley in 2017, she created “The Hub”, a digital hub in the heart of Beirut, to develop group projects previously handled in China and India. “Lebanese labor is now cheaper for them today. It helps to create jobs and show solidarity with the Lebanese,” says a business manager who knows the family well.
Numerous aid projects for humanitarian associations and support for failing state services are regularly carried out. “These are people you can always count on. The Saades allow Lebanese customs in particular to maintain itself, by paying for things as simple as paper or ink, which the Lebanese state can no longer even provide” , supports an industrialist. So much so that in the eyes of the Lebanese, “Rodolphe Saadé first appears as a benefactor before being a businessman”, adds another.
“He is the man of the French above all”
A real bridge with Europe, the CEO had notably accompanied Emmanuel Macron during his second visit to Lebanon on September 1, 2020, following the explosions in the port, to welcome a CMA CGM ship from Marseille with more than 2,500 tonnes of humanitarian aid. Close to French power, as his father had been in the past, Rodolphe Saadé does not maintain the same close relations with local political leaders.
Emmanuel Macron opened an international videoconference for aid to Lebanon on August 4, 2021 from Fort Brégançon.
afp.com/Christophe SIMON
“He is the man of the French above all, even if he retains a sentimental tie. In Lebanon, he has good relations with everyone, but he is rather close to Prime Minister and billionaire Nagib Mikati“, notes a business manager. “This is what differentiates him from a Carlos Ghosn”, adds an industrialist. The ex-boss of Renault, refugee in Lebanon in 2019 after having fled Japan, does not hesitate not, him, to accentuate his patriotic fiber.
Rodolphe Saadé is perceived as a less flashy, more discreet personality. “At dinners, he is rather withdrawn, but in business, he is the monarch, he is not the type to delegate”, says an industrialist. His sister, Tanya Saadé Zeenny, president of the CMA CGM foundation, appears in Lebanon as more “worldly”, “close to the arts community”. In this large family, which has had its share of fratricidal wars (the brothers Jacques and Johnny Saadé fought in the courts), Rodolphe Saadé seems determined to make his mark.
