Baba Danpullo-Linked CCML Takes 10% Stake in AGL Cameroon

Cameroon Continental Merchants Limited (CCML), a company with longstanding ties to Cameroonian businessman Baba Ahmadou Danpullo, has acquired a 10% stake in AGL Cameroon, giving it a significant shareholding in one of the country’s major transport and logistics operators.

CCML acquired 31,575 shares, according to a legal notice reviewed by Business in Cameroon. AGL Cameroon’s board unanimously approved the transaction at a meeting on December 23, 2024.

According to minutes filed with Douala notary Régine Dooh Collins-Ekollo, the board approved CCML as a new shareholder and authorized the transfer of 31,575 shares previously held by Africa Global Logistics in its Cameroonian subsidiary.

The document does not disclose the price per share or the total amount CCML paid. Data from AGL Cameroon’s recapitalization, however, show the size of the stake acquired.

Following the recapitalization, the company had share capital of CFA10.621 billion, divided into 315,750 shares with a nominal value of CFA33,639 each. CCML’s 31,575 shares therefore represent exactly 10% of the company.

Their combined nominal value is about CFA1.062 billion. That figure represents the accounting value attached to the shares and should not be interpreted as the transaction price, which has not been disclosed.

Longstanding Ties to Baba Danpullo

CCML’s association with Baba Ahmadou Danpullo has been documented for several years. In October 2019, Africa Intelligence described Cameroon Continental Merchants as the Cameroonian businessman’s group when it was considered among the local investors expected to take stakes in the company that would operate the container terminal at the Port of Douala.

CCML was expected to lead the Cameroonian partners of Terminal Investment Limited (TIL). That proposed structure ultimately did not materialize in that form.

The acquisition of the AGL Cameroon stake now gives CCML a direct shareholding in a major player in Cameroon’s transport and logistics industry.

AGL is the former Bolloré Africa Logistics, which MSC acquired in December 2022 and renamed Africa Global Logistics in 2023. The group operates across logistics, port terminals, maritime services and rail transport in Africa.

CCML’s presence in Cameroon’s economy dates back much further. A United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) report based on investigations conducted in 1992 identified Cameroon Continental Merchants Ltd as the largest shareholder in Société camerounaise de minoteries (SCM), with a 52.9% stake.

Those figures are more than three decades old and do not establish SCM’s current ownership structure. They nevertheless show that CCML has been present in Cameroon’s industrial landscape for decades.

The legal notice does not provide AGL Cameroon’s complete shareholder structure following the transaction. It does establish, however, that CCML now holds a significant 10% stake in the Cameroonian subsidiary of the MSC-controlled logistics group.

Amina Malloum