France warned it could risk losing L'Oréal
Legal expert issues public warning over potential Nestlé takeover
A public warning to the French media and public over the increased pressure from a possible takeover of L'Oréal by Nestlé has come from a leading financial legal expert Frederic Parrat. Parrat says that for months now, instead of being grateful to the Bettencourt family for having founded L'Oréal and for remaining on French territory for fiscal purposes, the French "have expressed their contempt and scorn". He adds that forgetting the economic crisis, unemployment and the reforms of the pensions sector, the French media have been speaking almost daily of the "supposed links" between Justice Minister Eric Woerth and Mme Bettencourt and her quarrels with her daughter.
Mme Bettencourt has recently said she is "shocked and outraged" by the way her private affairs have been dragged through the media. Parrat asks whether the French want the Bettencourts to leave France because for France to lose L'Oréal, assuming any future takeover of control of the company by Nestlé, would have serious consequences. For one thing it was likely the HQ would move to Switzerland. L'Oréal currently employs over 65,000 people, has a wages bill of over €3.5bn and pays around €1bn a year in tax.
The lawyer argues that the French have to understand that the world has changed, that they are engaged in an economic battle and that they could lose the currently burgeoning Asian market if Nestlé acquired control.