Christel Bories will remain in her post. Eramet’s board of directors, which met on Tuesday, March 30, was to renew its CEO for a four-year term – with the support of the State, during which the functions of chairman and managing director would be separated, a policy of government already expressed in Engie. This decision comes after weeks of tensions linked to the desire of the Duval family, the largest shareholder in the metallurgical and mining group (37% of the capital and 44% of the voting rights), to replace the one who has been working on its recovery since 2017.
For its part, the State holds 25.6% (30% of the voting rights) under a shareholders’ agreement signed in 1999. Eramet, the last mining company with the nuclear group Orano (uranium), is a strategic company for France: it exploits and processes nickel in New Caledonia and, more recently, in Indonesia, manganese in Gabon; in Argentina, it has investment projects in lithium deposits, an essential mineral for the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles.
The standoff has been opposing the state to the Duvals since early March. The discreet Auvergne family reproaches Mme Bories, according to Agefi, his management of Société Le Nickel (SLN), in New Caledonia, and too heavy a debt. The group has admittedly suffered a loss of 675 million euros in 2020 and a slight decline in its turnover (to 1.33 billion), while net debt stabilized at 1.33 billion per last year. But the supporters of Mme Bories ensure that she held the helm in the storm, especially on the Caillou, shaken by political and social unrest.
“Relevant” transformation
In Bercy, we judge his record “Very positive”. Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recovery, gave him his support. The CEO also received that of some 250 employee shareholders. Including, according to them, members of the executive committee and trade unionists. “By its ability to decide and act, we recognize in [elle] a true captain of industry ”, they write in a recent letter to directors.
In the midst of a health crisis, it would be “Unlikely to change in the turmoil that which, thanks to the actions undertaken for almost four years, has enabled the group to resist this major crisis”. A diagnosis shared by financial analysts, who recall, like the State, that the Eramet share has gained 95% in one year.
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