Who is Jacques VEYRAT ?

Jacques VEYRAT is a French business man. Former president of the Louis Dreyfus group. Now he is Chairman of the holding company that he founded in 2011, IMPALA sas. He is also a board director on different companies.

In 1995, he joined Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, where is was responsible to negociate the sale of the ships the company wanted to remove from it's balance sheet. In 1997, he is appointed general manager of LDA. Under his management he took the initiative to expand the company activities especially in telecommunications, by building a fiber optic network along the French maritime routes.
In 1998, he became CEO of this subsidiary called LDCom, the company was focused in the operation and colocation of fiber network infrastructures and telecom services. As CEO, Jacques VEYRAT grew the company with successive external growth operations (Kertel, Belgacom France, 9 Telecom…).

In 2004, he even managed to merge LDCom with Cegetel to create N9uf Cegetel. It was a paying strategy since the company quickly became leader in the telecommunications landscape in France. He carried on his strategy with the acquisition of AOL France in 2006 and Club Internet in 2007. The group was then sold in december 2007 to SFR for 7,5 Billions €.

For LOUIS-DREYFUS group, the telecom adventure was a real financial success, thanks to Jacques VEYRAT strategy. With this achievement, Jacques established himself in the company as an essential and wise executive. He was then considered by Robert LOUIS-DREYFUS as his "professional and spiritual son" he even appointed him as his successor, Jacques was then CEO of LOUIS DREYFUS Group.
As the malady was taking on him, Robert entrusted Jacques with the responsibility of ensuring a smooth transition and defending the interests of his wife and children.

Following the death of Robert LOUIS-DREYFUS, he succeeds him as Chairman of LOUIS DREYFUS group... Discreet, Veyrat inspires confidence. Robert's sisters and cousins see him as the providential man to manage the family jewel. However, while the widow of Robert, Margarita LOUIS-DREYFUS, had never taken part in her husband's business, she didn't trusted Jacques VEYRAT and started to question him. Then, she opposed her to the introduction of the group on the stock exchange, the strategy advocated by Jacques. After a few months of secret opposition, it is the open war between the widow and the spiritual son. To everyone's surprise, he is the one who loses.

After 2 years as chairman of the Louis Dreyfus Group and 16 years in the Group, Jacques VEYRAT steped down and left the conglomerate to work on his own. He managed to exchange his 270M€ holdings in Louys Dreyfus Group for stakes in promising company such as Direct Energie, Neoen or Eiffel Investissement, holdings that were previously held by the Louis Dreyfus Group. Jaques gathered thoses assets in a financial Holding company : IMPALA Sas was born.

In April 2018, Total announced the acquisition of Direct Energie for 1,9 Billion €. This acquisition is a major milestone for Jacques VEYRAT who held a 33% stake in the company through IMPALA, which according to the terms of the sale means a 625M€ payout from a 50M€ investment.