Albert Frère

The baron Albert Frère (February 4th 1926 with Fountain-the Bishop in Belgium) is a Business man and Belgian Milliardaire . He is married and father of 3 children.

Biography

Left nothing, without diploma (the legend wants that it started to sell nails), Albert Frère made, as of the 30 years age, the acquisition of active companies in the Sidérurgie Wallonne, in particular in the area of Charleroi. As of the end of the Years 1940, it builds the bases of its fortune on the trade of steel, then on the iron and steel industry and particularly CARLAM. In particular, Albert Frère sold steel in the communist countries after the war of Korea, benefitting from the high prices and the shortage, according to his biographer José-Alain Fralon. When as of the end of the Années 1970 was announced the crisis of steel, it sold its iron and steel companies at the Belgian State (see in particular John Cockerill).

After steel, it then reinvests the capital paid-up while being interested in the bank, the insurance, energy, the media… It creates in 1981, with the assistance of the Canadian financier Paul Desmarais, the Swiss holding Pargesa, benefitting from chaos creates by the nationalizations of the Socialist government of Pierre Mauroy.

Albert Frère buys in 1982 the Groupe Brussels Lambert (GBL). GBL is in 2005 holder of participations in Bertelsmann (to a total value of 25,1%) which it will sell the first July 2006 for 4,5 billion euros, the oil company Total (to a total value of 3,6%), the financial and industrial group Suez (to a total value of 7,2%; 8,3% in 2006), the group of materials Imérys (to a total value of 26,4%) and the cement-manufacturer Lafarge (15%), in whom his participation goes up appreciably since the end of 2005. Between 1986 and the summer 2004, it took, via its company CNP, the control of the editions Dupuis, since resold with the group MediaParticipation.

In 2007, the fortune of Albert Frère was estimated at 3.1 billion Euro S. Frère is the only Belgian (and thus the only Walloon) present in the list of the richest personalities of the world, drawn up by the magazine Forbes . End 2005, it repurchases the group of restoration Flo with Jean-Paul Bucher. It was annobli and appointed baron by the king Albert II of Belgium in 1994.

Very influential in the coteries of Parisian finance, the baron Frère, who divides himself between Paris and Gerpinnes, cultivates also an eclectic taste for the works of art and the great wines (see the Château White Horse). He recently got a foothold in the prestigious group Taittinger. Albert Frère is member of the Jockey Club of Paris.

See too

Random links: