The board of battered French marketing group Havas proclaimed its unanimous support for chairman/ceo Alain de Pouzilhac in the face of the apparently aggressive move by corporate raider Vincent Bolloré who recently built a 22.6% stake in the company.
The vote of encouragement was expressed in a board statement issued at the end of last week. This emphasized that the board is anxious to protect the interests of all Havas' shareholders and asks that the chairman reiterate the request to Bolloré asking for clarification of his intentions.
"This clarification concerns the intentions regarding his stake in Havas' capital and his position with regards to the strategy formulated by the board of directors and implemented by Havas management," said the declaration.
The board's reaction to Bolloré's stalking of Havas was to enlist the support of a cadre of other major shareholders able to outvote any threat [WAMN 26-Nov-04].
Meantime, de Pouzilhac's standing with shareholders received a vital boost last week with the announcement that Havas' flagship agency network Euro RSCG in New York has won the $100m (€74.68m; £51.61m) Charles Schwab account after a four-way pitch.
Data sourced from BrandRepublic (UK); additional content by WARC staff
