PARIS: Last month the Bolloré Group announced it had received an offer from the MSC Group to acquire its Bolloré Africa Logistics subsidiary, including 16 port concessions, for €5.7 billion.

The group has since given MSC a 90-day period for further due diligence and to complete contract negotiations for a sale - subject to regulatory and competition authority approval.

Also in December, Bolloré’s Dakar Terminal, operator of the El Hadji Malick SY RoRo facility in Senegal, was awarded a Bolloré ‘Green Terminal’ label following a review by Bureau Veritas.

The port audit was based on digitising work processes, building infrastructure compliance, carbon-reducing handling equipment, waste management, and employee best practice training.

As a result, the recovery of hazardous and non-hazardous waste at the terminal has increased from 4.0 percent in 2019 to 64.00 percent in 2020.

“Our challenge for 2022 will be to further reduce our environmental footprint based on our current scoring and to reach an even higher level of performance,” declared Jérôme Beseme, Dakar Terminal managing director.

Bolloré introduced its Green Terminal certification last year based on methodology validated by Bureau Veritas to help reduce the carbon footprint of its port activities.

In addition to its logistics infrastructure, MSC – which has also made a similar 90-day bid, together with Lufthansa, for Italy’s new scheduled airline ITA – will acquire Bolloré port concessions in Nouakchott, Mauritania; Dakar, Senegal; Conakry, Guinea; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Monrovia, Liberia; San Pedro, Côte d'Ivoire; Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; Tema, Ghana; Lomé, Togo; Cotonou, Bénin; Lagos, Nigeria; Kribi, Cameroon; Bangui, C.A.R.; Libreville, Gabon; Pointe-Noire, Congo; Moroni, Union of the Comoros; and Réunion, France.