After the Alstom case (which, however, in the end passed to the Americans of General Electric), the French are also playing for their national identity card in the tussle for Club Med. The managing director of the world's number one holiday village, Henri Giscard d 'Estaing, in fact underlined that the sale to the Italian businessman Andrea Bonomi, whose takeover bid reached 790 million euros (21 euros per share) would bring control into the hands of foreign investors.
In fact, from the very beginning the eldest son of the former president of the French Republic Valery Giscard d'Estaing it backed the 557 million euro offer made by the Ardian fund and the Chinese conglomerate Fosun, equal to 17,5 euros per share, despite the higher bid by the consortium led by the Italian manager, patron of Investindustrial.
“The Gaillon project, which brings together Ardian and Fosun, is based on a strict balance, on parity between the French shareholder and the Chinese shareholder. Thanks to the participation of Club Med's management and around 400 executives, the French majority is assured,” Henri Giscard d'Estaing declared in an interview with Le Figaro.
"By contrast (Bonomi's investment vehicle) Global Resorts has a very different approach and wants to single-handedly take control of Club, which would then be exclusively in international hands," he added. According to some sources, in recent weeks Fosum-Ardian has attempted to obtain support from the authorities against Bonomi. “Club Med's future is based on two pillars: its strengthening on its main markets, including France, where we continue to gain market share, and on markets that can bring us growth, Russia, Brazil and above all China, which has become the first world tourist market”, said the CEO of Club Med.
While awaiting developments, yesterday Club Méditerranée announced that it had appointed experts to examine the takeover bid launched by Andrea Bonomi on the French group. Arousing more than a few perplexities is the fact that the Italian entrepreneur has also clarified that he will replace the current management.
