Société financière française et coloniale

Octave Homberg, a diplomat until 1905 and then a banker and financier who worked on the financing of France's war spending during World War I, created the SFFC on 12 November 1920. The new company was designed to channel investments in colonial ventures, primarily though not exclusively in French Indochina, which the Banque de l'Indochine was too cautious to undertake on its own. It was strongly supported by Lazard until a dispute in 1926. The company was initially domiciled at 35, boulevard Haussmann in Paris, and was later registered at the Banque de l'Indochine's head office at 96 bis, boulevard Haussmann.[1] In 1927 it moved into a purpose-built head office of its own. Throughout the 1920s, it raised its capital on repeated occasions and invested in numerous companies, both in Metropolitan France and in Indochina, as well as in the New Hebrides, Djibouti, and Gabon. In France, the SFFC's investments included, among others, the Société pour l’exploitation des appareils Rateau, the Société franco-belge de matériel de chemin de fer, the Soieries Ducharne, the Cote Desfossés, the Compagnie centrale d'énergie électrique; in Indochina, the Société des Caoutchoucs de l'Indochine, the Crédit foncier de l'Indochine, the Société industrielle de chimie d'Extrême-Orient, the Société des Sucreries et Raffineries de I’Indochine, and the Papeteries de l'Indochine; and elsewhere, the Société des Salines de Djibouti, Société algérienne d'éclairage et de force, the Société industrielle du Bas-Ogooué in Gabon, and the Société des minerais de la Grande-Île in Madagascar.[1]

The SFFC's fortunes were negatively impacted by the economic downturn in 1929 and especially by turmoil in the rubber market, which led to a severe decline in the SFFC's stock price in late 1930, an incipient bank run, and eventually a comprehensive though protracted restructuring. In December 1930, the French government sponsored a financial package of 105 million francs, with credit provided by the Banque de l'Indochine (35 million), Lazard (20 million), the Banque de l'Union Parisienne (20 million), and Worms & Cie (5 million) together with the government itself (25 million), with an additional credit package provided by the same four banks in June 1931. Octave Homberg resigned his SFFC-related mandates in December 1930 and January 1931, and was replaced by Camille Barrère as SFFC chairman. The government of French Indochina contributed further financial support in June 1932. Eventually, in May 1933, the Banque de l'Indochine provided fresh equity and wrote off some of its prior lending to the SFFC. By mid-1935, the SFFC, which was no longer a bank but only an investment holding company, had sold many of its former assets and was again on a sound footing. Edmond Giscard d'Estaing succeeded Barrère as SFFC chairman in 1935.[2]

During World War II, the SFFC relocated its head office to Vichy from June 1940 to November 1944, when it moved back to Paris. It changed its name to SOFFO on 20 July 1949,[2] reflecting Giscard d'Estaing's pivot away from the French colonial empire to greater investment diversification including towards air travel and real estate. By 1967, more than half of the SOFFO's revenue came from Metropolitan France. It remained present in southeast Asia, however, principally through a majority stake in the Société Internationale de Plantation d'Hévéas.[4][3]

In 1972, the Suez Company acquired a controlling stake in the SOFFO, which was still publicly traded. Edmond Giscard d'Estaing left its chairmanship in May 1974, succeeded by Jacques Polton until 1993, then by Patrick Ponsolle. By 1994, Suez held a 29 percent stake in SOFFO. In 1998, SOFFO merged with Suez Industrie, another holding entity within the Suez group.[3]

• Banque de l'Indochine