Société financière française et coloniale
Investment bank | |
Industry | Financial services |
---|---|
Founded | December 11, 1920 |
Founder | Octave Homberg |
Defunct | 1949 |
Fate | Merged |
Successor | Suez Industrie |
Headquarters | , |
Products | Investments in colonial ventures |
The Société financière française et coloniale (SFFC, "French and Colonial Financial Company") was a French
History
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
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
Buildings
Paris
During its brief heyday in the 1920s, the SFFC commissioned two iconic buildings in Paris, both bordering the
The second SFFC building at 34, rue Pasquier, was completed in 1929 on a design by architect Alex Fournier and his son Pierre in
Ironically, the SFFC was a prominent exponent at the Paris Colonial Exposition in 1931, just at the time of its near-bankruptcy and financial restructuring, with a pavilion designed by architect Albert James Furiet with sculpture by Georges Saupique.[2] The pavilion was demolished after the end of the exhibition.
By early 1940, the SFFC's head office was at 23, rue Nitot in Paris.[2] The street was renamed rue de l'Amiral-d'Estaing in 1949, following lobbying by Edmond Giscard d'Estaing.[4]
Saigon
The SFFC first opened an agency in Saigon in 1923, and in 1926 moved it to a building erected for that purpose on Boulevard de la Somme, now Hàm Nghi in Ho Chi Minh City.[7][8] In 1933, the SFFC sold it to the Union immobilière indochinoise (UII), a company in which it was an investor; the UII in turn sold it to the Franco-Chinese Bank, which made it its principal building in Saigon and remodeled it in the late 1930s. Following the Fall of Saigon, the building was used until 2015 by the Mekong Housing Bank, and more recently by the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV).
Other locations
The Haiphong branch of the SFFC was designed by architects Georges-Henri Pingusson and Paul Furiet , and completed in 1928 on Boulevard Bonnal, now Công viên Tố Hữu.[9] The SFFC sold it to one of its creditors in 1936.[2] The building still exists and is used as a branch by Vietinbank.
The SFFC inaugurated a branch building in Hanoi in 1928,[7] but closed it after only a few years of operation.[2]
By the early 1930s the SFFC also had offices in Phnom Penh and Casablanca.[7]
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SFFC head office building at 51, rue d'Anjou in Paris
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51, rue d'Anjou: sculpted Nāga
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51, rue d'Anjou: sculpted head of Buddha
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51, rue d'Anjou: Asian-inspired balcony
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51, rue d'Anjou: Asian-inspired balcony
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SFFC building at 34, rue Pasquier, with the bas-relief sculptures by Georges Saupique
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34, rue Pasquier: Elephant by Saupique
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34, rue Pasquier: Crocodile by Saupique
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34, rue Pasquier: Shark by Saupique
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23, rue de l'Amiral-d'Estaing (formerly rue Nitot) in Paris, the postwar Parisian head office of SFFC then SOFFO
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Former SFFC building in Saigon, later remodeled by the Franco-Chinese Bank
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Former SFFC building in Hanoi
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c "Société financière française et coloniale (SFFC)(1920-1930)" (PDF). entreprises-coloniales.fr.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Société financière française et coloniale (SFFC)(1930-1949)" (PDF). entreprises-coloniales.fr.
- ^ a b c "Société financière pour la France et les pays d'Outre-Mer (SOFFO)(1972-1998)" (PDF). entreprises-coloniales.fr.
- ^ a b "Société financière pour la France et les pays d'Outre-Mer (SOFFO)(1949-1972)" (PDF). entreprises-coloniales.fr.
- ^ "Ancien Siège Social C.S.M.E. 51 rue d'Anjou". Varangéville Cité du Sel.
- ^ Sarah Ahssen (8 February 2022). "Lancel sets up its new headquarters on Rue Pasquier in Paris". Fashion Network.
- ^ a b c "Société financière française et coloniale (SFFC), puis Société financière pour la France et les pays d'Outre-Mer (SOFFO)" (PDF). entreprises-coloniales.fr.
- ^ Tim Doling (29 March 2015). "Old Saigon Building of the Week – 32 Ham Nghi, 1926". Historic Viet Nam.
- ^ "Objet PINGU-D-26-01. Agence bancaire pour la Société financière française et coloniale (SFFC), Haiphong (Viet Nam). 1926-1928". Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine.