Bollore Eyes Media Stakes, Open to Future Aegis, Havas

March 17 (Bloomberg) -- French financier Vincent Bollore is shopping for cheap media assets as market values have plunged and said “all the doors are open” to a possible merger of ad firms Aegis Plc and Havas SA, in which he’s the biggest investor.

“My plan is to have the best future for both companies and I’m quite impressed by the new CEO and chairman of Aegis,” Bollore, 56, said in an interview yesterday in Paris. Aegis Chairman John Napier took over as interim chief executive officer after Robert Lerwill stepped down in November. Bollore insisted that his approach at Havas, where he is chairman, is “hands on,” while he’s a silent investor in Aegis.

Bollore owns 32 percent of French firm Havas and 29.9 percent of London-based Aegis. A merger would create a global advertising force to rival Martin Sorrell’s WPP Plc and New York- based Omnicom Group Inc., the two largest ad companies. As the global recession weighs on revenue and market values, some say Bollore may soon follow through.

“We’re getting toward the bottom of this market and Bollore won’t miss the bottom,” said Lorna Tilbian, a media analyst at Numis Corp. in London. “Being a consummate strategist, now is the perfect time” to merge Havas and Aegis.

In his 17th floor office overlooking the Seine river in a Paris suburb, Bollore said he sees “many opportunities” to expand in advertising, TV and newspapers as values have plummeted, noting shares of Interpublic Group of Cos., the third-largest ad company, are “very cheap.” New York-based Interpublic has lost 50 percent of its market value in the past year, compared with about 32 percent at WPP, Havas and Aegis and 45 percent at Omnicom.

Family Business

Bollore, who took over his family’s struggling paper-mill business in 1981, has turned Bollore Groupe into a holding company with revenue of 6.4 billion euros ($8.3 billion) in 2007, with banking, media, shipping and paper manufacturing stakes. The company supplies the paper for 60 percent of printed Bibles and Qurans and 90 percent of passports.

A corporate raider, friend of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and comic-book collector, Bollore was ranked the 843rd wealthiest man in the world by Forbes last year, worth $1.4 billion. He bought stakes in French tubemaker Vallourec SA, Vivendi Universal SA and construction group Bouygues SA and sold them -- sometimes after a power struggle -- for a profit.

Bollore also owns 5 percent of Mediobanca SpA, Italy’s biggest publicly traded investment bank, builds electric cars with Ferrari designer Pininafarina SpA, operates ports in Congo, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast and runs Cameroon’s rail system.

Media Expansion

Bollore began expanding into media in 2004 and gradually built holdings in Aegis and Havas. He also owns French digital TV channel Direct 8, two free newspapers, a stake in movie producer Gaumont SA and a cinema in Paris.

“Aegis lacks a CEO and Bollore will have to strike when there isn’t leadership,” Tilbian said. “The scene is set with falling interest levels and rates and valuation and a lack of management.”

Bollore has failed in five attempts to nominate representatives to the Aegis board and yesterday said he won’t try again this year if Aegis proposed independent people to the board.

“It’s important not to have only the management involved in the future of the company,” he said. “If it’s outside people, independent and non-active inside the company, it could be a formula.”

‘Discreet’

Bollore noted talk in the market that “an agreement” between Havas and Aegis could be a good idea. “I suppose it’s true, but if I say these companies should work together I’ve pushed them outside. I must be discreet in this.”

Analysts have said the companies may work best together in purchasing advertising space. Havas’s media-buying portfolio is largely regional while Aegis is a big player in continental Europe, they said.

Aegis’s media-buying unit Carat and digital business Isobar are “very attractive to a group that would want another global media network,” according to Anthony De Larrinaga, an analyst at Jefferies International Ltd. in London.

Analysts say Aegis may try to sell its market research unit Synovate, leaving the rest open for a bid from Bollore.

“Aegis could sell Synovate and the balance will merge with Havas,” said Alex De Groote, a media analyst at Panmure Gordon & Co. in London. A Havas and Aegis merger would save money, possibly through job cuts, and Bollore might finance such a deal with a mixture of cash and shares, De Groote said.

Bollore himself insists he is a long-term shareholder in both companies and is in no hurry to merge. Improved earnings at Havas in recent years has cut debt and produced “real cash flow,” Bollore said.

“Havas I’m sure will make some acquisitions one day.”