Havas chairman and chief executive Alain de Pouzilhac revealed the request as he unveiled some good news for Havas, which reported profits of €14m (£9.56m) in the first half, compared with a loss of €58m in 2003, a year after the company began a painful restructuring process.
De Pouzilhac said that Havas was now looking at Bollore's request. "We are looking at this, we are reflecting about putting representatives on the board. It seems legitimate to me that this shareholder is asking to be represented," he said.
De Pouzilhac added that he had talked to Bollore several times and it was during one of these conversations that Bollore said he would like to be on the Havas board.
Earlier this week, Bollore doubled his stake in the company to 10.4%, intensifying already heated speculation that Havas would be the next advertising group to be taken over.
This morning Havas reported earnings per share rose by 75% to 14 cents, compared with eight cents last year, while revenue fell by 10% to €750m.
It remains to be seen whether the strong results, which are in line with analyst expectations, will be enough to deflect calls for chairman and CEO Alain de Pouzilhac to step down. Havas is due to present its result at a conference to be held at 3.30pm Paris time (2.30pm in the UK and 9.30am in New York).
It has been a tumultuous week for Havas. On Sunday it was confirmed that the company had lost out to WPP Group in the fight to take over Grey Global Group after being outbid.
A successful bid for Grey would have catapulted Havas to the advertising majors, allowing it to compete with bigger rivals Publicis Group, Omnicom and WPP.
In this morning's results release, De Pouzilhac said: "This very strong improvement in Havas' results has demonstrated that we have been able to achieve both the restructuring plan and the strategic reorganisation, announced a year ago, within the time frame that we had set ourselves."
He added that in drawing closer to the figures of certain "of our competitors", that Havas is on the right track in terms of operating and financial performance.
Havas also said that it was to refinance a 2006 convertible bond with a €400m capital increase. Shares in the company fell this morning after trading up for the past three days on rumours of a potential takeover. At the time of writing, the share price was €4.12, down by 3% on yesterday's closing price of €4.25.
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