Delmas-Vieljeux

"It must be said that when it comes to ambition, Bolloré is abundantly endowed. By 1999, he had already successively swallowed up Scac, taken a bite out of Delmas-Vieljeux, plundered the Rivaud group, and taken a big chunk of the assets from the Seydoux and David-Weill families... Not to mention his raid against Martin Bouygues, a member of Entreprise et Cité, foreshadowing the ability of the big predators to devour each other."

"Tristan Vieljeux, whose family owned Delmas-Vieljeux and had a virtual monopoly on maritime transport to Africa."

"When placed, with a professional heritage of 585 million francs, not even the equivalent of 100 million euros. He had then turned around the family business, established a presence in Africa, and acquired the ship owner Delmas-Vieljeux. But the group was heavily indebted, and a respected financier-Bernard Ésambert, former industrial advisor to Georges Pompidou-had to be called upon to calm the concerns of the twenty or so banks that were keeping a close eye on their Bolloré account like a hawk."

"energy, Bolloré summarized his group as follows: "The recurring businesses, which are rarely talked about, generate annual revenues of 400 to 450 million euros. We extract from this 250 to 300 million to invest in future-oriented projects." Africa in the 1980s, Rivaud in the 1990s, media with the turn of the century... And always energy storage. "We invest where no one else goes," Vincent Bolloré repeats tirelessly, to justify the family lock on the capital and "the stability of its shareholding, which allows it to pursue a long-term investment policy," as stated on the first page of Bolloré's annual report. "Without that, I would have been fired three times already," adds the entrepreneur more bluntly, who believes-rightly-that conventional investors would never have followed him in the attack on Delmas-Vieljeux, the raid on Bouygues, or the crazy bet on batteries: no less than 3 billion euros invested over the past twenty-five years in energy storage!"

"In 1991, Vincent Bolloré took over the maritime company Delmas-Vieljeux, founded in La Rochelle by the Delmas brothers, Franck and Julien, in 1967. The company specialized in transport to Africa. In order to achieve this, he did not hesitate to incur considerable debt. As the leading private French shipowner, the company has a large fleet of cargo ships registered in the Bahamas and the Kerguelen Islands. Despite strong resistance, Vincent Bolloré will succeed in attracting various shareholders to his offer, notably the influential Claude Bébéar, who holds 34% of Delmas-Vieljeux."