Nine times out of ten, we get bored at general meetings. But sometimes the annual shareholder meeting turns into a big theater stage, where a play full of suspense and twists is played out. The general meeting of the energy operator Rubis, which is being held on Tuesday June 11 in the afternoon, promises to be in this vein. It must be said that Breton businessman Vincent Bolloré was invited to the casting, a sure guarantee of adventures.
Until now, this company created in 1990 by the banker Gilles Gobin, associated with Jacques Riou, had received little attention, even if its niche strategy allowed it to take leading positions in the Caribbean or Africa. in the distribution of gasoline or bitumen. This business capitalizes 3.3 billion euros on the stock market, but it was worth more than 5 billion before the Covid pandemic. The market took little notice of the 2021 takeover of solar energy producer Photosol, a diversification carried out at a high price according to its detractors, even if the price has rebounded in recent months, notably due to speculation.
An undervalued nugget? A group led by two septuagenarians, one of whom is passing the scepter to his daughter? A cash flow of almost 1 billion euros after the sale of the energy storage activity? If we add that the fortress seems impregnable, because it is organized as a share sponsorship, all the ingredients come together to attract Vincent Bolloré. The latter revealed, at the end of March, that he held more than 5% of the capital of Rubis. An operation carried out, in complete chromatic coherence, through its holding company Plantations des Terres Rouges. This is a ” financial investment “explained Cyrille Bolloré, the general director of the Bolloré Group, an expression equivalent in business grammar “Bollorienne” to the famous “Can I go back just to have one last drink?” ».
A “counterweight to management”
At this stage, however, the Bolloré group remains behind. Two other investors are involved. The first, Patrick Molis, owner since 1999 of the Compagnie nationale de navigation (CNN), former maritime transport branch of the Worms group, indicated that he had also acquired a 5.3% stake in the capital of Rubis. For him, the poor stock market performance is linked to the archaism of sponsorship and “limited effectiveness” of the supervisory board. The financier has tabled resolutions aimed at winning half of the seats on the “board” of Ruby.
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