Patrick Drahi

Patrick Drahi
Born 1963 (age 54–55)
Casablanca, Morocco
Residence Geneva, Switzerland
Nationality French, Israeli, Portuguese
Alma mater École Polytechnique
Occupation Businessman
Known for Founder and head of Altice
Net worth $7.9 billion (January 2016)[1]
Spouse(s) Lina Drahi
Children 4

Patrick Drahi (Hebrew: פטריק דרהי‎; born 1963) is a Moroccan-born businessman with French, Portuguese, and Israeli citizenship,[2] living in Switzerland since 1999.[3] He is the founder and controlling shareholder of the Netherlands-based telecom group Altice listed on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange.

Biography

Patrick Drahi was born in Casablanca, to a Moroccan Jewish family. When he was 15 years old, the family moved to Montpellier, France. His parents are both math teachers. Drahi has an engineering degree from the École Polytechnique university in Paris (a post-graduate degree in optics and electronics).[1][4] He is married and lives in Geneva, Switzerland, with his Syrian-Greek Orthodox wife;[5][6] they have four children.[1]

Business career

In 2013, Drahi founded the international news channel i24news. This channel is based in Israel, and broadcasts in French, Arabic, and English.[7]

Drahi later became the owner of French cable operator Numericable. Drahi bought SFR, France seconde mobile phone and internet provider in France in 2013 from media conglomerate Vivendi.

Drahi and his group Altice entered the American telecommunications market in 2015 by purchasing a 70 per cent stake in Suddenlink Communications, the seventh-largest cable company in the US. Suddenlink is valued at $9.1 billion.[8] In 2015, Drahi bought Cablevision from the Dolan family, renaming it Altice USA with its flagship brand Optimum being the fifth-largest cable operator in the USA. Drahi owns the Israeli cable television company HOT.[9]

As of November 2015 Forbes estimated Drahi's net worth at $10.3 billion. Forbes ranks him as the 60th-richest person in the world, the third-richest person in France.[10] He was ranked as the richest person in Israel, until 2016, when he came in at second.[9][11]

The leaking of the Panama Papers in April 2016 confirmed publicly his identity as the shareholder of an offshore company.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Patrick Drahi". Forbes. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  2. ↑ "Le futur actionnaire de SFR a-t-il renoncé à être français?". 14 March 2014. .
  3. ↑ Grégory Raymond (14 March 2014). "Qui est Patrick Drahi, le sulfureux patron de Numericable". .
  4. ↑ "Patrick Drahi". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Financial Times: "French telecoms outsider is more easyJet than jet set" by Adam Thomson 22 May 2015 | "He spends his weekends at his home in Geneva with his Syrian Christian (Greek-orthodox) wife"
  6. ↑ Altice's savvy 'playbook' fuels rapid growth at telecoms group 24 February 2015, Financial Times, Adam Thomson in Paris and Arash Massoudi in London
  7. ↑ "Billionaire Drahi Set to Expand International Media Holdings". Wall Street Journal. 22 June 2015.
  8. ↑ "Patrick Drahi's Altice Enters U.S.A. With Suddenlink Deal; Clash of Telco/Cable Titans Looms". Forbes. 22 June 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Globes English - Patrick Drahi's Altice to buy Cablevision for $17.7b". globes.co.il. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  10. ↑ "#57 Patrick Drahi". Forbes. 22 June 2015.
  11. ↑ אבריאל, איתן. "500 העשירים: האיש שחזר לפיסגה עם 8.3 מיליארד דולר". TheMarker. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  12. ↑ "Paradis fiscaux : le casse du sièclePremières Lignes partenaire de l'ICIJ, au cœur du scoop mondial #PanamaPapers CASH INVESTIGATION mardi sur France 2 à 20h55". www.pltv.fr. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
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