The Provence-Alps-Côte d'Azur-Corsica network of Chambers of Commerce and Industry focuses on the transmission of companies

There is so much talk about the transmission and takeover of companies that we could consider it to be quite simple and commonplace. Unfortunately it's not the case.

Indeed, it is important to note that among the 200.000 companies that constitute the economic fabric of the Provence-Alps-Côte d'Azur region, 40.000 of them will be concerned by this phenomenon in the next ten years, which implies some 250.000 jobs. These figures help us to realize the true importance and gravity that the word "transmission" really represents. Aware of this problem, the Provence-Alps-Côte d'Azur-Corsican network of Chambers of Commerce and Industry decided to anticipate this movement by offering solutions to a fundamental and thereby priority theme, because this network aims at arousing the awareness of 12.000 managers a year to this problematic necessity. They principally target managers over 55 years old, in the process of selling their business, but more widely all those who are likely to cede their company or who wish to anticipate the transaction. To achieve this challenge they have created a federative pole, animated by the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry, consolidated by the 7 Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the region, which will mutualise their actions in the field of company transmission to propose a global program of intervention composed of 5 phases. The first step, as we could expect, it to subscribe to a data base specially conceived for bringing together assignors and buyers on a regional and national scale, and perhaps a little later on an international scale (when it is improved to be bilingual French/English.) This "stock exchange" of opportunities, developed with other actors notably in the Rhone-Alps region, was christened "C-Cible"; it is directly accessible from the homepage of the site: www.pacac.cci.fr. It is important to note that it enables you to diffuse or select opportunities in a precise and practical way, and especially confidentially. The second phase implies sensibility meetings with the managers over 50 years old, organized in partnership with the transmission professionals. The third phase is centred on training the future assignors, with the aim of preparing a maximum of 300 company managers, at the rate of 8 to 10 persons per daily session. The "buyer" training is also extremely important. For this, the network will establish a cartography of the existing trainings according to buyers' types and sectors. The fourth phase concerns making audits and diagnoses of companies; the company managers will be accompanied by a transmission consultant within a "FRAC Transmission" (a financial accompanying procedure set up by the Region).

The fifth phase consists in permanent action of communication, with the conception of specific tools for the various aspects of transmission. They envisage creating a big event, such as a "Transmission Show" to take place on one day in several cities… the details will be defined later.
Once again we note that apart from one exception, all the Presidents of the Provence-Alps-Côte d'Azur and Corsica Chambers of Commerce were present, among whom Paul Di Natale for Nice, Jacques Bianchi for the Var, Jean Paul Déo for the Alps of High Provence, Maurice Brun for the High Alps and Claude Cardella for the CRCI, to attend this meeting masterly led by Joseph Pérez, the third vice-president of the Vaucluse Chamber. Even if a lot of work remains to be done, it is encouraging to notice that when the general interest of the Region depends on it, all the actors reply present to invest completely in a unique objective, which is "the economic stability, the continuance and the entrepreneurial dynamics of our region." n