Nothing we cannot lose
No financial commitment whose default would endanger another company in the group. No cross-guarantees.
Family holding · Abidjan
A family that answers for what it owns.
Ogou Ayenon builds nothing, sells nothing and invoices nobody. It owns five businesses, appoints the people who run them, and answers for what they do.
Since 1971
The origin
A hardware shop in Bouaké, and one rule nobody changed.
The name comes from a father. The rest comes from what he refused to do.
In 1971 Ayenon Kouassi Ogou opened a two-room hardware shop in Bouaké. He sold cement, nails and sheet metal to masons he knew by name. He kept the book by hand, one line per customer, and never extended credit he could not afford to lose.
That sentence outlived everything else. It is article one of the charter today, and it is why the group has never carried a debt that a bad year could have made fatal.
The family formalised the holding in 2009, the year Ogou Construction was founded. Thirty-eight years separate the shop from the first company: that is not slowness, it is how long it took to have enough to fund one without borrowing.
Do not lend what you cannot lose. Do not build what you cannot maintain.
Ayenon Kouassi Ogou, 1971
The houses
Three doors, five companies, one shareholder.
Each house has its own leadership, its own accounts and its own page. None may borrow in another's name.
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2009
Ogou Companies
Construction, agribusiness, logistics
The three businesses that make the revenue. They employ almost everyone in the group and fund all the rest.
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2019
Ogou Agence
Brand, campaigns, content
Born as the group's own communications department. It became an agency the day other companies asked for the same work.
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2020
Ogou Art
Gallery, residency, collection
The one arm that does not aim to break even. It is funded by the other three and does not pretend otherwise.
The charter
Seven articles, kept since 2009.
These are not values. They are prohibitions, and they cost something.
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01
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02
One company, one set of books
Every business publishes its own result. None can hide a bad year behind a good one.
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03
The name comes second
Being an Ayenon entitles you to no post. Three of the five companies are not run by the family.
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04
We pay in thirty days
Suppliers and subcontractors, without exception and without negotiation. A date kept is worth more than a price cut.
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05
What we build, we maintain
Nothing is handed over without a costed, signed maintenance contract.
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06
The numbers are public
Headcount, accidents, payment terms: published every year, good or bad.
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07
We stay here
The head office, the accounts and the decisions stay in Côte d'Ivoire. This article has never been debated.
In figures
What the house holds.
1971
First business
5
Companies owned
1240
People employed
100 %
Family owned
0
Cross-guarantees
30 d
Payment terms
The family
Who signs.
The board has seven seats. Four belong to the family, three to people who do not and who can vote against it.
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Affoué Ayenon
Chair of the board
Granddaughter of the founder. Chair since 2016.
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Konan Ayenon
Group chief executive
Joined as a site manager in 2011.
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Dr Mariam Cissé
Independent director
Economist. Sits on the audit committee.
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Bernard Aka
Independent director
Former finance director, port sector.
What follows
What is coming, and what is not.
A fourth house is under study: energy, and solar in particular, for the group's own industrial sites. It will be created only on the day it can be created without borrowing.
What is not coming: outside capital, a move of the head office, and any softening of article one. Those three are not on the agenda and will not be.
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