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  "documentTitle": "Bolloré SA (BOL FP)",
  "authorId": "51_Muddy_Waters",
  "authorName": "Carson C Block",
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  "sourceTypeLabel": "Short seller",
  "presentationDate": "2015-02-17 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "The slide uses a 'Breton Pulleys' metaphor to describe the circular ownership structure.",
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      "text": "That means that the public effectively owns 42.8% of the company, versus the reported 24.3%.",
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      "text": "NAV per share: €10.63",
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      "text": "Muddy Waters is long BOL because its complex corporate structure creates a unique arbitrage. This complex corporate structure, a form of 'Breton Pulleys' obscures that the public owns over twice as much of the company as the market believes.",
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      "text": "Muddy Waters, LLC is long Bolloré S.A (BOL FP) because its complex corporate structure, with numerous levels of circular ownership, effectively cancels over half of its outstanding shares. Thus, we estimate that the true number of shares outstanding is only 42.8% of what BOL reports.",
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      "text": "Based on our estimate of the effective shares outstanding, we estimate BOL's present per share net asset value at €10.63, versus its current trading price of €4.37. Applying a 20% discount, we value BOL shares at €8.50, which is 94.6% higher than its current price.",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "We had never heard of BOL's controlling shareholder, Vincent Bolloré, until we came across BOL. We were therefore surprised to learn that he has been one of the sharpest-elbowed activist investors in Europe over the past three decades.",
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      "kind": "quote",
      "text": "Mr. Bolloré is an outstanding capital allocator, and has frequently been called “the Carl Icahn of France”. — Muddy Waters",
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      "text": "1-4: Footnotes regarding data sources and methodology for share ownership calculations.",
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