In the midst of the war in Ukraine, its Russian majority shareholder had become embarrassing: the French carrier Gefco, historically established in Franche-Comté, is going to buy the 75% stake in Russian Railways (RZD), placed under international sanctions because of the conflict. .
The 450 employees of Bourgogne Franche-Comté of Gefco had a presentiment of it, it is now official.
“Gefco’s management board has decided, with the agreement of its supervisory board, that the company itself will buy back the 75% of its shares currently held by Russian Railways,” said the company, whose acronym stands for Express groupage in Franche-Comté.
contacted, the management of Gefco did not wish to specify the details of the operation, but must communicate on “the evolution of (its) shareholder structure in the coming days”. The transaction could take place in mid-April.
Gefco is a former subsidiary of the PSA Peugeot Citroën automotive group (now Stellantis), which sold 75% of it to Russian railways at the end of 2012 for 800 million euros. The remaining 25% still belong to Stellantis.
“The majority shareholder of Gefco (…) has been placed under sanctions by the American, European and British authorities”, explains the company. “All these authorities agree that these sanctions should have no impact on Gefco, which is an independent company registered in France”.
The group, which mainly transports cars, has 11,500 employees in 47 countries, including 3,400 in France (450 in Franche-Comté), for a turnover of 4.2 billion euros in 2021.
On March 6, our colleagues had received the interview with Patrice Clos, secretary general FO transport. According to him, “the credit lines of the banks are being closed. We see that with Canada and the United States it becomes very complicated, the airlines refuse to take the Gefco freight. I think that the French State must intervene, even if it means taking over the shares of the Russians through Caisse des Dépots et Consignations.
This is another solution that seems to be in place according to exclusive information from the newspaper Les Echos. The shipowner CMA-CGM would be in the running to get Gefco out of this bad situation.
It should be noted that Gefco has also had maritime transport activities since 1972.
“Despite this clarification, conducting our day-to-day business, with our customers and business partners around the world, has become extremely difficult due to our shareholder structure,” the group admits.
Contacted, the management of Stellantis did not wish to comment on the operation. The maritime transport giant CMA CGM, tipped to take over shares in Gefco, did not wish to speak either.
“The situation obviously creates an image and reputation problem, and raises questions among our customers”, explained the CEO of Gefco, Luc Nadal, on March 23 in Les Echos.
The French government welcomed this announcement, stressing that it was only a “first step” before the arrival of new owners.
“The share buyback operation, closely monitored by Bercy’s services for several weeks, is a good first step towards a change in Gefco’s shareholding, essential to protect the group’s activity in the short term”, according to the firm. of the Minister of Industry Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
The firm however noted that “to be definitively concluded, this operation must in particular be the subject of authorization from the European authorities”.