Fonds Stratégique de Participations (FSP) is a long-term investment vehicle created by some French insurers (BNP Paribas Cardif, CNP Assurances, Crédit Agricole Assurances (through its insurance subsidiary filiale Predica), and Sogécap (Société Générale Group), later joined byGroupama and Natixis Assurances. They invest jointly in the share capital of a limited number of listed firms. In June 2015, the Fonds Stratégique de participations invested €350M in Zodiac, a French company reputed for its inflatable boats (ZODIAC AEROSPACE (ZC – FR0000125684).
The Fonds Stratégique de Participations will have a seat on the Board of Directors and will be represented by Florence Parly. Florence Parly is graduated from IEP (Institut d’Études Politiques) and ENA (École Nationale d’Administration). She is deputy CEO of the French railway company SNCF, in charge of Strategy and Finance. She started her career at French ministries, then held political duties before joining the private sector at the French airline company Air France.
She already sits on the Board of two other listed companies (Altran and Ingenico). All-in, she holds an excessive number of time committments according to Proxinvest. Indeed, while being executive of a non-listed firm (SNCF), the availability required to perform that duty is very high.
The French AFEP-MEDEF corporate governance code recommends that an executive should not hold more than two outside directorships.
While a seat for the Fonds Stratégique de Participations is justified given its investment, Proxinvest, the French partner of ECGS, recommended in its ECGS proxy report to oppose this election to the Board of ZODIAC due to the excessive number of mandates. The Fonds Stratégique de Participations should adopt in the future a clear governance policy to contribute to the best governance practice of the Paris marketplace.
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