French officials searched the head office of the Bollore Group as part of a probe into the leading transport and logistics group’s port-operating contracts in two West African nations.
Investigators are examining whether Bollore’s PR subsidiary Havas had offered its services to the leaders of Guinea and Togo to help the company secure contracts to operate terminals in Conkary in 2011 and Lome Port in 2010.
Bollore, which operates 14 container terminals in Africa, has rejected the allegations and noted that until recently it was only a minority shareholder in the PR company.
“With respect to its port activities, Bollore Group would like to stress that these are considerable investments, carried out in partnership with other large international groups,” the company said in a statement.
“They represent commitments extending over many years and for which they are selected, exclusively, according to the amount and technical qualities of the investments.”
The search of Bollore’s headquarters on the western suburbs of Paris took place last Friday and was reported by the Le Monde newspaper earlier this week.
Source: JoC
Source: JoC