For Bastille Day, a lawyer's view of Franco-Philadelphia
Philadelphia's French business community has spread around the country, says lawyer Yves Quintin
During the global merger boom of the 1990s, Philadelphia enjoyed "this heavy wave of significant French investment," recalls Yves Quintin, partner at Duane Morris LLP and author of Franco-American merger textbook Les Fuisons-acquisitions aux USA (2005, Editions Lyon Blais).
Center City-based chemical maker "Pennwalt was acqured by Elf, now it's Arkema." King of Prussia insulation-"CertainTeed was acquired by Saint-Gobain. Rhone-Poulenc bought (local drugmaker) Rorer, merged with Hoechst, became Aventis, and was acquired by Sanofi. These were very large transactions."
The deals brought a cadre of French managers and professionals to the Main Line, and with it mixed institutions like the French International School of Bala Cynwyd, with its French and American student body and governing board.
"That wave of large investments has not continued," Quintin added. Not all the French investments were successful. Not all arrivals stayed in Philadelphia.
Today his practice is widely spread. Clients include family-owned French firms with U.S. acquisitions, such as Prosodie, an acquisitive call-center firm that's moved its U.S. operation to Florida; publisher Lagardere (its magazines include Marie-Claire) in New York and Paris; Chargeurs (adhesive films), with its U.S. office in Boston. And French Canadian firms like Atrium Innovations (nutritional supplements) and Sigma Industries (mixed manufacturing.)
These days, there's also disappointed companies trying to get out of their U.S. investments. Buying or selling international assets "is still not an easy process" in a down market.
Do the French, who resisted and criticized some aspects of economic "globalization," feel vindicated by the collapse of the boom? "To some degree," Quintin told me. "In France they call yours the 'Anglo-Saxon free-market model.' They certainly feel that model has shown significant drawbacks."
Yet France's current President is an admirer of British and American efficiency, and longer work hours than the French have become used to. "Sarkozy still wants to pass various institutional and economic reforms. We have so many layers of government. We're wasting a lot of money. We want to eliminate some layers."
On the other hand, the 35-hour work week is understandably popular with French workers. "Labor reform goals, they are very difficult to achieve."