MSC Group completes Sh750bn purchase of Bollore Africa operations
Bollore Transport and Logistics management with journalists at the Port of Mombasa during the flagging off of a full freight Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) train to Nairobi Container Terminal at Embakasi on March 29, 2018. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NMG
French logistics group Bollore announced on Wednesday it had completed the sale of its Bollore Africa Logistics arm to global shipping company MSC Group for Sh750.3 billion ($6.1 billion).
Bollore is owned by the family of billionaire Vincent Bollore. The company is one of Africa's largest transport and logistics firms and operates in Kenya.
Under the share purchase agreement, MSC Group has acquired a 100 per cent stake in the French conglomerate’s African operations as well as some of its terminal operations in India, Timor-Leste and Haiti.
“After having obtained the regulatory and competition approvals that conditioned the completion of the operation, the Bolloré Group announced on December 21st 2022, the sale of 100 percent of Bolloré Africa Logistics to the MSC Group,” read a notice on Bollore Kenya website.
“The sale concerns all the Bolloré Group’s transport and logistics activities in Africa.”
Bollore Kenya has seven warehouses, eight offices and over 1,000 employees.
It is not yet clear how the sale will affect the company's local operations.
The information on its website says that it operates in 47 African countries with around 21,000 employees.
The multi-billion-dollar deal will include acquiring the firm's shipping, logistics, and terminal operations on the continent.
The firm also has 74 agencies in 32 African countries.
With a network of 250 subsidiaries, the company has activities in 42 ports, runs 16 container terminal concessions and operates three railways concessions.
MSC offered to acquire the company in December 2021 and signed an exclusivity agreement to allow it to conduct due diligence on the French firm.
According to media reports, Bolloré Group reportedly decided to put the African logistics business up for sale in 2020 while involved in a long-running bribery scandal.
