Scopelec had been desperately looking for a savior for a month. It’s done. The French group Circet, which belongs to the British investment fund Intermediate Capital Group, was chosen by the Lyon commercial court to take over the majority of the activities of Scopelec, the leading French cooperative group, placed in receivership on September 26.
According to the court judgment, Circet, a French specialist in telecommunications infrastructure, undertakes to take over 1,049 employees out of 2,300 in the group and its subsidiary Setelen. During the hearing on December 8, the administrators and legal representatives, as well as the prosecution, considered Circet’s offer to be financially more solid than that of Newscope, which provided for the safeguarding of 1,457 jobs and was carried by a majority of employees.
Scopelec provided the installation of optical fiber and the maintenance of the copper network for Orange before the announcement, in November 2021, of the loss of most of this market, which provided 40% of its turnover. This cooperative and participatory company (SCOP) still had 3,600 employees in 2021 and achieved a turnover of 475 million euros.
The president and the government called upon to take a stand
According to the judgment, Circet will take over all the activities of Scopelec and its subcontractor Setelen with the exception of the Reunion-Mayotte zone, the “uses and services” business branch and the south-east zone for its Gobé and Scopelec Energie Services subsidiaries. “It’s really a disappointing decision, we are sad after having made all these efforts. 1,049 employees is good, but it’s not enough. The responsibility is largely borne by Orange, but also by the government, which has not lifted a finger.commented CGT union representative Mario Cesaro.
In mid-December, the employees had asked the French President, Emmanuel Macron, to take a stand, on behalf of the “sovereignty”, in favor of their takeover project. Mr. “Macron did not answer the mail, and we never saw or [le ministre de l’économie] Mr. The Mayor nor the Minister of Labor [Olivier Dussopt] despite our calls. We are not listed on the stock exchange, so we do not interest them.castigated the union representative.
At the beginning of December, the chairman of the management board of Scopelec, Carlos Verkaeren, had risen against Orange, claiming to have been informed that the company owned 23% by the State did not support the Newscope project. “This completely reverses the posture of Orange, which until then was benevolent, it is unacceptable and incomprehensible”explained the management of Scopelec to Agence France-Presse. “We would have had more chances to explain our project, more truth, without the pressure from Orange, which disturbed the free will of commercial justice”lambasted Wednesday Cyrille Rocher, director of the Regional Union of SCOP in Occitania – where Scopelec is based –, who had participated in the drafting of the Newscope offer.
A decision “to the detriment of employment”, according to Carole Delga
The president of the region, Carole Delga (Socialist Party), was moved by a decision “to the detriment of employment” whereas, according to her, it was possible to “maintain this benchmark company in the cable and fiber business within the French fold”. Asked on Wednesday, Orange did not wish to react. The day before the hearing, political representatives – including Mme Delga, the mayor of Lyon, the ecologist Grégory Doucet, and the deputy of Nupes François Ruffin – had called on the State to ” take his responsibilities “.
The other candidates for the takeover were the companies Alsatis, Kyntus, Solutions 30 and Foliateam.
Scopelec, whose employees hold the capital (in this case, 74.8%) and the decision-making power, was created in 1973, at the height of workers’ cooperatives, in Revel (Haute-Garonne). Its headquarters moved in 2021 to Sorèze, in the Tarn. Circet, a specialist in fixed and mobile network infrastructures, achieved a turnover of 2.42 billion euros in 2021. The company has 12,950 employees in fourteen countries (Europe, Morocco and United States). In France, Circet has 80 branches employing 3,800 people.