Private Equity Firm Takes Control of Louis Dreyfus and Names New CEO
France’s Louis Dreyfus Amateurs, which today is focused on offshore services, cargo and port operations, and logistics, has been sold to private equity investment group InfraVia Capital Partners. The companies had announced in February that the Louis-Dreyfus family was negotiating to sell the majority of its holdings and that it would be an opportunity to grow the operations.
InfraVia reports that one of its funds has acquired an 80 percent stake in LDA with the family continuing to hold the remaining 20 percent. The business, which traces its origins to 1890 and had remained in the family, will now be renamed LD Armateurs with Samira Draousa named the new CEO, while Edouard Louis-Dreyfus will remain as president.
The new owners are promising to invest €1 billion (nearly $1.2 billion) in the company over the coming years. The companies had said when first announcing the discussions that the investment called for more than doubling the current fleet. LDA operates 23 vessels including RoRo vessels and offshore support ships to provide maintenance of offshore wind farms, and installation and maintenance of submarine telecom and power cables.
“This investment will enable the group to more than double its fleet and accelerate its growth in technological innovation, energy transition, and the development of next-generation maritime services and navigation modes,” the companies said, announcing completion of the sale.
Overseeing the new company will be Samira Draoua, who becomes the chief executive officer of LDA. She has a long career spanning finance, digital transformation, and maritime operations. She was serving as CEO of Econocom France, an IT consulting firm. Also at the group, she was president of Les Abeilles International, a tug and offshore services company that was providing salvage and rescue services to the French government. Les Abeilles was sold in 2024 to Boluda.
LDA has been in the maritime business for more than 100 years, when it started with a small fleet of grain feeders navigating on the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea under the Russian flag. After the First World War and the Russian Revolution, the company transitioned in the 1920s to a fleet of ocean-going cargo ships and more recently, added RoRo, offshore, and port logistics. The last of the cargo ships was sold in the early 2020s.
LDA has become a leader in offshore services, realizing the opportunities in the sector. It expanded to offshore wind services as the sector emerged. It recently unveiled designs for a floating offshore ammonia cracking platform and its next-generation design for a liquid hydrogen-fueled service operations vessel (SOV) for servicing offshore operations.