Shot of the harbor front. The Bolloré group, which has been looking for a buyer for its African activities for months, has granted an exclusive right for the sale of its empire to the Mediterranean Shipping Company of Geneva (MSC), which belongs to Gianluigi Aponte, the shipowner native of Sant'Agnello (province of Salerno) who for years has been in second place among the taxpayers of the Swiss Confederation. The negotiation is taking place on the basis of 5,7 billion euros (including debts), or more or less double what was assumed at the end of the summer, when Bolloré had entrusted Morgan Stanley with the mandate to sell what is the most important logistics facility in West Africa: 42 ports, 16 container import-export terminals, warehouses and three railway lines on which a large part of the world's cocoa circulates. But, in a planet broken by bottlenecks that hinder world trade from Suez to Los Angeles, logistics is destined to have an increasingly strategic weight. So much so as to turn the spotlight on Aponte, 81, a very discreet master of half-world trade through MSC, "a private organization run by the Aponte family - as stated on the company website - world leader in container shipping".
Starting in 1970 from a single ship, Aponte (a great family friend of Sophia Loren) has been able to develop a company, with a fleet of 560 vessels and over 70.000 employees. A giant that has a network of 493 offices connecting a network of roads, railways, maritime transport: "a global service with local knowledge" articulated in 500 ports on 230 trade routes, transporting goods for around 23 million TEUs. In short, one of those networks whose existence we tend to ignore until an emergency arises, such as the one that has hit the world of transport from the Suez Canal to the port of Los Angeles.
Yet MSC undoubtedly makes a great contribution to our sea economy. Last summer Aponte withdrew Fincantieri from the Monfalcone shipyards MSC Seashore, the largest cruise ship ever built in Italy (4.300 workers who worked for 12 million hours/man for the construction) . “It is an investment that by itself generates – explained Pierfrancesco Vago, executive president of MSC Cruises – an impact on the Italian economy of almost five billion. Not to mention the important tourist-economic flywheel activated by the ship during its life”. Now, despite the pandemic, the group has commissioned another ship: Eplora I, a new luxury brand to be built in Fincantieri, an order worth two billion. It is estimated that all these and other industrial investments will generate 13 billion induced activities for Italian companies".
“I think, with due modesty, that the extent of the investments we are making in Italy is a unicum – the Sorrento sailor said in a rare interview with Corriere della Sera – But we don't only invest in Monfalcone for the construction of new cruise ships but we also do it in the maritime terminals and in commercial railway transport. In all, we employ 15 people who work in Italy”. But Italy is only a piece in that picture of the world economy in which the former coastal sailor (married to Rafaela, two children, assets calculated by Forbes at 10,5 billion dollars) contends for leadership with a few others competitors who seemed to be favorites in the challenge for Bolloré's African logistics.
Aponte has beaten to the wire the Danes of Maersk,Costco's Chinese and French of Cma Cgm, who however preferred to bet on Fenix Marine, the third terminal of the port of Los Angeles and on the American Ingram Micro Cls, owner of 59 warehouses between Europe and the USA. In the event that the negotiation is successful, Aponte will thus extend the list of proprietary ports, the terminals that allow for guaranteeing priority in the unloading of goods, "when necessary". In a world where, even in 2022, the need will most likely manifest itself often, if not always.
But what prompted Bolloré to leave African ports, at the origin of his entrepreneurial adventure? Among the reasons for selling that slice of the empire already entrusted to one of his sons, Cyrille, is undoubtedly politics. On the contrary the judicial misadventures of the patron escaped prison only after pleading guilty to the help given through Havas (Vivendi group) in the electoral campaigns in Guinea and Togo in exchange for port concessions in Lomé and Conakry. A sort of law of retribution for Vivendi's casual number one who owes his first financial fortunes to Africa, where he has collected enormous fortunes since 1986.
But today is the time to change register also to avoid trouble: enough of Africa, where Bolloré still retains control of strategic media. Someone else will have to shoulder the burden of the colonial legacy. This time, writes Le Monde, there was not even a phone call to the Elysée, which is not surprising given the support of the Bolloré media for Eric Zemmour, the spokesman of the xenophobic far right. “We – says a Macron spokesman – are the last that Vivendi could inform”.
