French billionaire Vincent Bollore considers selling African assets

Bollore, the French conglomerate controlled by billionaire Vincent Bollore and family, is mulling selling off its African logistics divisions.

According to a Friday report by the French newspaper Le Monde, Morgan Stanley has been engaged to search for potential buyers. So far, French shipping company CMA CGM and Danish group Maersk have reportedly indicated an interest and are evaluating Bollore’s assets in Africa.

Bollore Group has operated in in Africa since 1927 and has an active presence in 47 countries on the continent. Its subsidiary, Bollore Africa Logistics, is the largest transport and logistics operator in Africa, where it has a large network of about 250 subsidiaries and more than 20,000 employees.

Le Monde also said Bollore’s African logistics activities could be valued between 2 billion euro ($2.3 billion) and 3 billion euro ($3.4 billion).

Bollore runs his family’s conglomerate Bollore Group, which was founded in 1822 as a paper manufacturer of cigarettes wrappers and Bibles.