(Business in Cameroon) - The Bolloer-owned Société d'exploitation des parcs à bois du Cameroun (SEPBC) validated last March 1 the deal to split into two separate entities. The newborns are the Douala Port Timber Terminal (TBPD) and the Kribi Multipurpose Platform (PPK).

The Douala Port Timber Terminal operates the timber yard installed on the Douala port platform, following a 15-year concession contract signed with the Douala Port Authority (PAD) on December 9. On the other hand, the Kribi Multipurpose Platform (PPK) will operate the timber yard at the deepwater port of Kribi and other non-containerized goods. However, for the moment, Bolloré has only acquired a temporary occupation permit for a site for timber yard exploitation. The permit was issued in exchange for rent payment to the Port Authority of Kribi (PAK). 

"We do not have a timber terminal in Kribi. We only have a timber yard managed by Bolloré since the launch of the port's activities. But with the new plan, which would consist of having a platform in Kribi to manage something other than timber, perhaps it will be necessary to analyze the new legal implications of our collaboration," says a source inside the PAK.  

With the PPK, the Bolloré Group -which will officially change its name in Africa on March 30, 2023, following the purchase of its assets by the Italian-Swiss operator MSC- is strengthening its position within the port platform of Kribi. The new entity is, in addition to the Kribi Containers Terminal (a joint venture between Bolloré, CMA CGM, and CHEC, ed) and Kribi Logistics Hub, an investment of CFA7 billion inaugurated on June 8, 2022, which allowed the Bolloré Group to provide Kribi with its very first logistics platform

BRM