OLAM AND YCAP ARE SHARING YOUR LAND. OLAM ET YCAP SE PARTAGENT VOS TERRES




English version

Olam is a Singaporean agribusiness company to which the Gabonese government granted vast land concessions, recorded in what remains until now a secret contract; which even the Gabonese parliamentarians ignore the ins and outs.

YCAP Asset Management is an investment fund offering to institutional investors customized investment solutions. This fund is headquartered in Luxembourg, but also licensed in France and Switzerland. In finance, are called institutional investors, big financial players whose investments are significant to key markets; such as major investment funds, pension funds etc. Asset management means management of financial assets belonging to investors. YCAP is a company to which big investors entrust large sums of money with the mission to make them grow through investments that generate very large returns.

Olam has sold a portion of the land that was given to them by Ali Bongo, to YCAP for 78 billion CFA francs. Why is an investment fund interested in Gabonese land?

According to the magazine The Economist, in the past five to ten years, Africa has been conceptualized by the major financial markets as the last frontier in the global economy. African is rich in exploitable natural resources such as land, water and minerals; but poor in capital. Thus external interests can acquire these coveted African resources at very cheap prices and exploit them for exports to the west with astronomical profits. It is a well-known fact that there is no more available exploitable land in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Africa is the last refuge for finding huge amount of exploitable land. The investors buying African land can make money by directly exploiting that land in growing crops, cutting wood, producing biofuels or extracting its minerals. However, these investors could also sublet these land concessions to secondary clients for the share of the profits generated.

In the specific case of Olam in Gabon, the speculative activity concocted by the Singaporeans comes from the fact that the company has sold land it certainly obtained for a symbolic franc, to an investment fund for a significant amount of money; and this fund to grow its investment of 78 billion CFA francs, certainly will in turn conduct leasing transactions of sliced portions of these lands for all kinds of exploitation.

Dear readers, you would have noticed that in these transactions, the Gabonese land law does not appear anywhere. Does a foreign company have the right to sublet Gabonese land to other interests that too would sub-sublet the land in turn? In 1885, Europeans divided Africa without the input of Africans; in 2015, non-Gabonese across the board are sharing our land among themselves. What do we say?



Version française

Olam est une entreprise singapourienne d’agro-industrie à qui l’Etat Gabonais a octroyé de vastes concessions terriennes, consignées dans un contrat jusqu’aujourd’hui gardé secret; dont même les parlementaires gabonais ne connaissent ni les tenants, ni les aboutissants.

YCAP Asset Management est un fond d’investissement offrant aux investisseurs institutionnels des solutions de placement sur-mesure. Ce fond est domicilié au Luxembourg, mais agréé aussi en France, et en Suisse. En finance, on appelle investisseurs institutionnels, de gros acteurs financiers dont les placements sont déterminants sur les marchés, tels que les grands organismes de placement collectif, les fonds de pension etc. Asset management signifie gestion des produits de placement d’une clientèle. YCAP est donc une boite à qui de gros investisseurs confient d’importantes sommes d’argents avec pour mission de les faire fructifier par des placements générant des retours d’investissement très important.

Olam vient de céder une portion des terres qui lui ont été données par Ali Bongo, à YCAP pour 78 milliards de francs CFA. Pourquoi un fond d’investissement s’intéresse-t-il à des terres gabonaises ?

Selon le magazine The Economist, au cours des cinq à dix dernières années, l'Afrique a été conceptualisée dans les principaux marchés financiers comme étant la dernière frontière de l'économie mondiale. L’Afrique est riche en ressources naturelles exploitables telles que la terre, l'eau et les minéraux; mais pauvre en capital. Ainsi, des intérêts extérieurs peuvent acquérir ces ressources africaines tant convoitées, à de très bas prix et de les exploiter pour exportations vers l'occident, avec génération de profits astronomiques. Il est bien connu qu'il n'y ait plus de terre exploitable de disponible en Europe, en Asie et dans les Amériques. L'Afrique est le dernier endroit où on puisse trouver d’énormes étendues de terres exploitables. Les investisseurs qui achètent des terres africaines peuvent les rentabiliser en exploitant directement cette terre par l’agriculture, la coupe du bois, la production de biocarburants ou l'extraction de ses minéraux. Cependant, ces investisseurs pourraient également sous-louer ces concessions foncières à des clients secondaires pour un partage des bénéfices générés. C’est sur ce dernier point qu’intervient la spéculation.

Dans le cas spécifique d’Olam au Gabon, l’activité spéculative concoctée par les Singapouriens tient au fait que cette entreprise ait cédé des terres qu’elle a certainement obtenues au franc symbolique, à un fond d’investissement moyennant une importante somme d’argent ; et ce fond pour faire fructifier son investissement de 78 milliards de francs CFA, va certainement à son tour procéder à des opérations de location à la découpe de portions de ces terres pour toutes sortes d’exploitation.

Chers lecteurs, vous aurez remarqué que dans ces transactions, le droit foncier gabonais n’apparait nulle part. Une entreprise étrangère a-t-elle le droit de sous-louer les terres gabonaises à d’autres intérêts qui eux aussi vont les sous-sous-louer à leur tour ? En 1885, les européens se partagèrent l’Afrique sans l’avis des Africains ; en 2015, des non-Gabonais sur toute la ligne se partagent nos terres. Que disons-nous ?

Comments

  1. Olam was a agri-commodity trading company registered in the Singapore..they have not experience in running plantations, running/building fertiliser plants, running/building SEZs, Running / Building GRAIN type schemes...all this is brainchild of the Olam Country Manager in Gabon - gupta gagan. Gupta rose in the ranks of Olam and in the powerful men in gabon rank by selling ABO dreams.
    Dream 1 Sold: GSEZ : Cost 3 to 4 times, was meant for red gold ( timber n related industries ), now doing everything they even have scrap recycling industries in GSEZ now... The companies in GSEZ are basically saw mills exporting sawn timber ... which does nothing much to add value to the round logs... the Indians bring their own labour, they don't train the locals.
    Dream 2 Sold: Palm / Rubber Plantation. The Govt gave Olam 250,000 Hectares of land in the country for free --- to develop plantations.. which basically means the villages get to work in the plantation for a penny and olam gets the free land bank and cheap oil / rubber to export. ABO basically wants everyone living in the village to be a worker in the plantation..the new bonded labour / slave. Lets not talk of the forest they had to clear to do the plantation...
    Dream 3 Sold: Fertiliser plant --- use natural gas to produce urea/ammonia which is not needed in gabon ( so basically for export ) and Olam basically does not pay any taxes for 10 - 15 years...so the country gets nothing ..... they will create 100 to 150 jobs (maybe) for which they will get to bring expats without restrictions :)
    Dream 4 Sold: Manganese to NOGA:: BHP Billiton's mine was given to the Indians for a penny and now the indians are doing the same what comilog has being doing for ages...exporting a vast majority of Manganese as ore (without transformation or adding value) ..and a small quantity as ferro manganese so that no one complains..
    Dream 5 Sold: GRAINE --- the project gives villages small tracts of land to cultivate and to sell to Olam / Govt run buying agencies...the Olam gets cheap agri produce and the villagers are bound to olam to purchase.

    I would guess that Gupta has many more dreams for Gabon with his partner ABO .... I would see us loosing everything we have soon to this one company which is dominating our economy today

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