World number one in maritime transport, the Italian-Swiss MSC will take over the subsidiary Bolloré Africa Logistics, from the group of Vincent Bolloré, for 5.7 billion euros. MSC, managed by the family of its founder Gianluigi Aponte, was looking to develop its African network.
It would be an insult to the intelligence of Gianluigi Aponte to assert that he owes his fortune to his in-laws. Nevertheless, it was thanks to the capital provided by Rafaela, his wife, the daughter of a Swiss banker, that the young captain Aponte bought his first freighter in 1969.
This son of an Italian sailor who had lived in Somalia then embarked on the adventure of maritime transport before taking the turn of container ships in the 1980s. It was then that the Italian-Swiss group Mediterranean Shipping Company acquired a dimension world.
► To read also: Bolloré sells its logistics activities in Africa to the shipowner MSC
Now, it handles 21.5 million containers every year in more than 40 ports around the world. This family business, with carefully protected capital, is also very popular with French leaders. Emmanuel Macron’s right-hand man, Alexis Kohler, is indeed linked to the Aponte family. He is also suspected of collusion of interests with the MSC group.
Nevertheless, this proximity is seen by Paris as an asset in preserving commercial positions and good relations with African leaders. As for MSC, very present in land transport in Africa via its subsidiary Medlog and its 650 trucks, it has been strengthening its port assets for several years.
Quasi-monopoly situation in Lomé
But if all the authorizations are obtained and the takeover of Bolloré Africa Logistics materializes, MSC will become a juggernaut in West Africa, reports our correspondent in Abidjan, Peter Pinto. In Côte d’Ivoire, Bolloré operates the first container terminal in the autonomous port of Abidjan. And soon the second, in consortium with its partner APM Terminals, a port subsidiary of the Danish Maersk.
This second terminal, which should be operational within a few months, will give the port of Abidjan another dimension enabling it to compete with its neighbors in the region: Téma in Ghana, where Bolloré is also very established, but above all Lomé or Lagos whose French shares the port with the Chinese of China Merchants Ports, the Italians of Grimaldi, and Maersk in particular.
It is really the end of an era when there was also a political rent given the proximity of the African powers to the powers in Paris.
Antoine Glaser, journalist and author of several books on relations between France and Africa
In Lomé, by taking over the activities of Bolloré, MSC which had set up its continental hub in Togo, will find itself in a situation of virtual monopoly on container traffic. Still in the region, MSC is also already established in San Pedro, in western Côte d’Ivoire, an exit port for Ivorian raw materials and a gateway for certain countries in the hinterland.
Beyond the ports, MSC will therefore also serve the landlocked countries of the sub-region. First thanks to the Sitarail. This subsidiary of Bolloré connects Abidjan to Ouagadougou by rail via Bobo-Dioulasso. Before Covid-19, it transported 200,000 passengers and 900,000 tonnes of goods per year. The Italian-Swiss group can also count on several dry ports: three in Bamako and one in Kayes, Mali, two in Ouagadougou and another in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.