Let us talk about “French Godzillas” today… Shall we?

Not Godzillas like the baby-lizard-turned-gigantic-monster thanks to the radioactive radiations emanating from some hypothetical undercover French nuclear experiments, shamelessly conducted in an undisclosed area of French Polynesia (according to the scrpit of the 1998 remake featuring Jean Reno)…

Non, but some very real, very palpable, yet invisible, *financial* Godzillas in France!

Not too long ago, a French friend confessed to me that her passion for le journalisme d’investigation was born the day she came to the startling conclusion that the International French airport through which she often traveled, the company which built that very same airport, in addition to the world-famous luxurious products she purchased at the airport’s détaxé (duty-free) area, together with the popular French news magazine she leafed through on the airplane while sipping a cup of a prestigious brand of French wine, the service company from which she usually rented her car to travel around in France, the autoroutes (highways) she drove through, the radio stations she tuned to while driving, the parking garages she used for her rented car, etc., etc.,

… all of them belonged to the one and same French owner!

Say Bonjour to Monsieur François Pinault (courtesy of bakchich.info)

Who’s this man, at the top-most rank of un empire invisible in France?

The man in question is a Frenchman by the name of François Pinault.

And this Frenchman is, above anything else, a businessman, who often likes to remind everyone that he hails originally from the la Bretagne region (the legendary Celtic land of Surcouf and Astérix and Obélix, which is technically the “least French” of all the 22 regions of Metropole France, since it historically maintained a vigorous resistance against the waves of alien invasion launched by the Salien Franks between the 4th and the 5th century, who would then coin the name “France“—but that of course would be an entirely different story.)

 It Takes Deux - But Somtimes Trois- to (French) Tango  

Linda Evangelista

Salma Hayek

In fact, Monsieur Pinault together with his son and designated heir, Pinault Junior, have practically become to French Brittany what the Du Pont family (of known French extraction) is to the State of Delaware.

Monsieur Pinault Jr., Salma Hayek‘s happy husband since almost two years now, was generously forgiven by his Hollywood-star-wifey for not too much wasting his time during the couple’s brief separation, during which he secretly fathered the son of “Too Funky” supermodel Linda Evangelista, of George Michael fame.

"And the Legion d'honneur is awarded to..."

In exchange for her admirable understanding, and sincere devotion towards her French husband (heir to the fifth wealthiest family in the country), the Latina Star who famously portrayed “Frida” was awarded only a few days ago la Légion d’honneur by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a très bon pote (very good pal) of the Pinault family—”Hey, après tout (after all), what’s a little Presidential medal pinning between good ole cronies?”)

In the same “Imperial” ceremony, which dates back all the way to the Napoléonic era, M.Pinault Sr. was promoted to the Legion’s exalted rank of Grand Officier (Grand Officer), s’il vous plaît.

Three to a French Tango: Hayek-Pinault Junior-Evangelista

Over the four past decades, Monsieur Pinault (the older) acquired a solid reputation of a “self-made man”—Yes, well, that, and also a “little push”, of course, from des amis bien placés (well-placed friends.)

His current personal fortune is “guesstimated” by Forbes at a conservative 11.5 milliards de dollars ($11.5 billion), slightly less than the PIB (French for GDP) of Iceland, but nearly the double of less fortunate countries such as Niger and Haiti, two nations where, luckily for him (but not so much luckily for them), he happens to be running several successful business operations.

 A French Story of “Sugar Daddies” and “Sweetheart Deals“  

Of course, not to badmouth the old man in the least, or, as the French say, lui casser le sucre sur le dos (literally “to break sugar on his back“, meaning “to speak ill of him”), but we are told, from several independent sources, that he started erecting his financial empire around 1970 as a commodity spéculateur—most particularly le sucre (sugar)…

Soon afterwards, his lucrative sugar dealings turned him into un vrai chouchou (a true darling) of the French financial elite, that is the “sugar daddies” of the CAC 40, the benchmark French stock market index, who so kindly rushed to take him under their protective wings, showering their protégé with numerous traitements de faveur, or “sweetheart deals“, chief amongst them is le Crédit Lyonnais, one of France’s oldest companies, which famously helped him shield millions (if not more) worth of taxes… in France, of course, but also in the the State of California (the launchpad of Junior‘s career), and many other places.

A colossal amount of money which, as a “shrewd investor of the 1980′s” (the golden era of Michael Milken and T Boon Pickens in the US, or Bernard Tapie in France), he would use as leverage to launch a string of eye-popping acquisitions.

In 1991, he’d kick-start his mad fièvre acheteuse (shopping spree) with les grands magasins (department stores, literally “big stores”) called “Printemps.” Then, a year later, he bought the vente par correspondance (mail order) company “la Redoute” (earning him the nickname “le redoutable“, meaning “the dreadful one”), thus establishing what is known today as the PPR consortium, or “Pinault-Printemps-Redoute“, a financial behemoth ran via his holding company named Artémis (spelled with or without accent.)

Through the effective control of PPR,  the Pinaults (father and son) secured:

• 100% of GUCCI, after a long and rather fierce struggle led against longtime rival, and France richest man, Bernard Arnault of LVMH (a “financial bloodshed” unseen since the “Turner vs. Murdoch” episode in the US)

• 100% of Yves-Saint-Laurent (YSL) 

•  100% of Boucheron 

•  100% of Alexander McQueen: The brand named after the late “enfant terrible” of the fashion world, the British fashionista who dressed Lady Gaga in her video “Bad Romance” (maybe just a joke made in “bad taste”?), and dearly missed by the new Queen of Pop after his alleged suicide some two years ago.

• 100% of la FNAC, a renown leader in France (as well as Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Greece, and Portugal) in retailing books, music, video games, and electronics. It has lately expanded operations all the way to Morocco, Thailand (choosing a local name of “Fayaque“), and Brazil (where it is known as “Fenaque.”)

• 94.2% of the fine French wine Château Latour 
  

• And last, but not least, a majority stake in Puma, the proud sponsor of both la Ligue 1 and la Ligue 2 of the Championnat de France de football!
  

Through direct and indirect means, the group Artemis also wields a powerful control over construction company VINCI (whose logo probably reminds some nostalgic “video gamers” of the Konami insignia of old days…), a corporate leviathan specialized in building everything involving le béton (concrete): From airports and highways, to rental car companies, parking garages, and even les stades (stadiums.)

 Between the Billionaire Breton and le Béton: A “solid love affair“

Two “concrete” examples (you may pardon the jeu de mot) can serve to illustrate the Pinaults “solid love affair” with le béton:

• After purchasing the prestigious fine arts auction house Christie’s International, Monsieur Pinault, a feverish collector of good things in life, desperately needed an adequate venue where he could finally “enshrine” his artistic chefs d’œuvres (if one may qualify as such some of the farcical works delivered by the “creative genius” Jeff Koons!) For that purpose, he hired the services of Tadao Andō, a notorious cast-in-
  place “concrete-freak” architect from Japan, seconded by the President of the Château de Versailles, CEO of TV5MONDE, and celebrated “first openly gay minister of France ever”, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, to renovate the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, which the Pinaults bought (allegedly for peanets!) from the Agnellis, the Italian majority shareholders of FIAT.

• Even before the fall of Communism, Polish Cardinal Józef Glemp had un rêve (a dream), but was seemingly too busy to fuflfil it: He has lately been forced to issue a formal apology for the series of harsh statements he leveled throughout the past years against people of the Jewish faith (following a rather costly lawsuit filled against him by Alan Dershowitz…) In order to realize this dream, namely the construction of the Temple of Divine Providence -a construction project already initiated some 200 years ago, but somehow never completed!- he naturally turned to the Polish subsidiary of Monsieur Pinault’s company (which is extremely busy these days preparing the UEFA 2012 Euro held in Poland and Ukraine): the company “Warbud.”

  Some have warned that the new spiritual edifice will be “no Notre-Dame”, but more like a gigantic sports complex made of 100% béton armé (reinforced concrete)… Compliments of Vinci and Monsieur Pinault.

     Corporate Synergy: “Case in Point“

 

Pour “faire le point” (to evaluate the situation), the emblematic Stade de France can be viewed as a case in “point” (“point”… as in the popular French magazine “le Point“, also swallowed by Pinault’s group):

You may recall that it was in this Parisian stadium where Zidane, le capitaine des Bleus, scored his two memorable goals in the 1998 World-Cup final against Brazil.

More than a decade later, after French sports achievements turned, alas, into something of the past (think of the last FIFA World Cup fiasco in South Africa, or the Paris Olympic bid for 2012), the Venci-owned stadium turned into une arène (an arena) hosting all kinds of artistic shows, preferably huuuge artistic shows that attract hundreds of thousands of spectators, such as the widely advertised musical “Ben Hur“, produced in 2006 by Bernard Hossein, who has for a while been at the helm of le Théâtre Marigny, a landmark Parisian theater more famous for hosting the prestigious Molières ceremony, but, naturally, a bit less for being the 100% property of the Artemis group!

In other words, to summarize things up, you could very well be originally from le Cambodge (Cambodia), read in a French news magazine or Internet website (owned by M.Pinault) about some “pretty cool” French show (produced by an employee of M. Pinault), fly all the way to France from Cambodia (where M.Pinault also owns airports!), arrive at a (Pinault-owned) International French airport (in Rennes), buy yourself some Gucci (Pinault’s), Château Latour (Pinault’s), or Puma (Pinault’s) products, preferably at the “duty free” area (who needs to pay taxes anyway? Remember, if he could, M.Pinault wouldn’t do it either), rent a Venci (Pinault’s) car, drive on a (Pinault-owned) highway, listen to a (Pinault-owned) radio station, park the (Pinault-owned) rented car at a (Pinault-operated) parking garage, and then enjoy watching the show in a concrete-built multipurpose stadium (owened by M.Pinault)…

Et le meilleur, c’est que vous ne vous en douteriez même pas une seconde! (And the best thing is that you wouldn’t even suspect it for a second!)

Lifting The Veil Off An Invisible “French Godzilla Inc.” is a post from: French Language Blog