Founded in 1822, Bolloré is a giant French conglomerate and one of the 500 largest companies in the world. It has an ownership stake in the French media giant Vivendi, international freight forwarding, oil pipelines and storage, solid state batteries, access control systems for buildings, palm oil and rubber plantations, olive groves and vineyards. It is a complex business controlled by the Bolloré family. And when it comes to these complex, family-controlled conglomerates there is one Australian investor that loves them above all others – Andrew Brown from East 72.
In his recent quarterly letter, Andrew has done a deep dive on the company which he claims every up and coming investment banker should study. As Andrew writes, “In its current form, Bolloré is a 40+ year history and playbook of every investment banking skill ever taught: cheap acquisitions, expensive sales, spin outs, squeeze outs, arguments with regulators, corporate raids and greenmail; buybacks, share swaps, buying then selling, selling then buying, and growth from the ground up.”
Even reading the explanation of Bolloré’s corporate structure can get confusing – 14 publicly listed companies that are all owned or part-owned by others in the corporate structure. This article starts to unpack the different components of the Bolloré empire and Andrew shares where he thinks there is opportunity and where there is not. It is also a great illustration of the work required to understand some of the more complex investment opportunities available on the stock market.
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