Vincent Bolloré is seeking majority control of Havas, where his son, Yannick, is chairman and chief executive.

The Bolloré group owns 36.2% of Havas. Vincent Bolloré is chairman and chief executive of the family investment holding company Bolloré S.A. He is also the chairman of Vivendi, the media company that owns Canal Plus and Universal Music Group. His son, Yannick, is chairman and chief executive of Havas.

 Vincent Bollore

Vincent Bolloré, is seeking majority control of the Havas advertising group in an all-share offer for which the company’s board has expressed support.

Bolloré has offered an exchange of nine shares of Bolloré for five shares of Havas. The transaction means Havas’ shareholders could exchange their shares and receive a 19.5% premium.

The premium figure is based on the last price before suspension of the shares of Havas and Bolloré, which were halted before the offer was announced on October 19. Havas closed the day at €15.706, up 1.9%.

The offer will open at the start of December and will close in mid-January. The result will be published at the end of January.

Bollore stated, “The public exchange offer fits into the continuity of Bolloré’s long-term investment in Havas, initiated over ten years ago.

“The offer highlights the confidence of Bolloré in Havas’ strategy as an independent group among the world leading communication players.”

 Yannick Bollore

Havas posted net income of 128 million euros, or AU$187 million, last year, on revenue of €1.7 billion. It employs about 16,000 people worldwide and ranks sixth among the world’s largest advertising agencies.

Havas’s board said in a statement that it had reviewed the terms of the proposal and that “the offer has been considered as friendly.” It will appoint an independent expert to review the proposal.

Bollore Group’s chief financial officer, Cédric de Bailliencourt, said that one of the reasons for the offer was to help bolster Havas’ international presence. “This offer will help them in a number of regions, for example they could use our bases in Africa and also in Asia. We can allocate Bolloré resources to help speed up the internationalisation of Havas…We are very clear, we do not want to sell Havas or transfer ownership to anybody else.”