INTERVIEW – For the former Minister of the Economy, the executive must at all costs oppose this sale to the American investment fund CD&R, for which France would pay dearly the consequences.
LE FIGARO. – The executive indicated that it would not refrain from blocking the sale of Opella, which produces Doliprane, to an American investment fund. Can and should he do it? ?
He can do it, of course. The government has the legal means which allow it, according to the decree of May 14, 2014 (called for excessive convenience the “Montebourg decree”), to block foreign investment in France in around ten sectors, including health. This right of veto was used very little by my successors MM. Macron and Le Maire, since only 3 vetoes have been decided to date, including one concerning Carrefour, which was the subject of a takeover bid by a Canadian competitor, Couche-Tard. This last veto seemed largely inappropriate since the supermarkets and neighborhood grocery stores under the Carrefour brand are assets that do not risk any relocation, and do not contain any patent or intellectual property of a strategic nature.
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“Big Business” n°145: The Doliprane, or the great dilemma between sovereignty and attractiveness
The American government, which has the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), carried out 20 vetoes…
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