Bouygues’ founding family increases holding in group to over 25%

The Bouygues brothers and their relatives have increased their shares in the Bouygues group to more than 25% of the capital of the French construction, telecoms and media giant, according to a statement to the AMF published on Wednesday. Martin Bouygues, chairman of the group’s board of directors, his brother Olivier and their families now hold “25.02% of the capital and 29.37% of the voting rights” of the group, indicates the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). “This threshold crossing results from an acquisition of Bouygues shares on the market”, specifies the AMF.

These shares in the group are held by the two brothers and their families almost entirely through their joint company SCDM, which carried out this acquisition “using its available financial resources”. According to the statement to the AMF, the Bouygues families “act in concert with each other and have not concluded an agreement in concert with a third party”. They also indicate that they plan to “increase their stake in Bouygues depending on market conditions and opportunities, without this taking them over 30% of the capital or voting rights”.

The Bouygues families “do not plan to take control of the Bouygues company”
Stock market regulations oblige a shareholder who exceeds the threshold of 30% of a company to launch a takeover bid (takeover bid). The Bouygues families “do not plan to take control of the Bouygues company”, or “to seek additional seats on the board of directors” and affirm that they “support the current strategy implemented by the general management of Bouygues“.

This was entrusted in February 2021, to Olivier Roussat, when Martin Bouygues began to hand over to the head by dissociating his functions of chairman and managing director. The French group is currently engaged in two large and costly merger-acquisition operations. Bouygues is trying to acquire Equans from the Engie group, the biggest takeover operation ever carried out by the group created in 1952, and to complete the merger between its TF1 channel and M6.

The completion of the takeover of Equans, which brings together technical services ranging from energy management in buildings to fire safety, air conditioning and digital technology, is however contested by the British competition authority CMA. Bouygues, which ended Wednesday’s session on the Paris Stock Exchange down 1.23%, is valued at 11.6 billion euros on the Paris market. Blaze Trends