While the Telecom Italia shareholders' meeting is underway, the now former number one of Vivendi ends up in trouble. Vincent Bollorè was placed in custody at the premises of the judicial police in Nanterre and questioned in the context of an investigation into alleged bribes paid by the group that bears his name in Africa. The interrogation is still ongoing.
According to the investigators, the French financier would have bribed foreign public officials to obtain port concessions in Togo and Guinea (the Bolloré group has one of its key business centers in Africa). The transalpine newspaper reported the news Le Monde, according to which the general manager of the Bolloré group, Gilles Alix, and Jean-Philippe Dorent, number one of the international division of the communication agency Havas, group chaired by Yannick Bolloré, son of Vincent, were also arrested.
The investigation started in 2014. According to the allegations, Havas allegedly provided consultancy and advice in order to promote the career of some African public officials in exchange for concessions on ports. Two years ago, the headquarters of the Bolloré Africa Logistics group was subjected to a search for a parallel investigation launched in 2012.
Il gruppo Bolloré ha pubblicato una nota attraverso la quale "formally denies" having committed "irregularities" in Africa. In detail, the affairs subject to investigation, continues the holding company, were "carried out in complete transparency" and the interrogation of Vincent Bolloré "will make it possible to clarify these issues in a way useful to justice, already the subject of an independent expertise which concluded the perfect regularity of operations".
The Bolloré stock on the Paris Stock Exchange suffered the repercussions of the news, dropping more than 5%. – 0,7% for Vivendi which is not involved in the investigation.
Recall that Bolloré a few days ago left the leadership of Vivendi, of which he is the first shareholder, to his son Yannick, became the new chairman. Vivendi in turn holds 23,9% of the capital of Telecom Italia and is currently engaged in a "fight without quarter" with the American fund Elliott.
