Vincent Bolloré

Vincent Bolloré
Born (1952-04-01) 1 April 1952
Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Residence Paris, France
Nationality French
Education Lycée Janson-de-Sailly
Alma mater Paris Nanterre University
Occupation Chairman and CEO, Bolloré
Net worth $5.3 billion (2016)[1]
Spouse(s) Anaïs Jeanneret
Children 4

Vincent Bolloré (born 1 April 1952) is a French billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of the investment group Bolloré.[2]

Early life

Bolloré was born in Boulogne-Billancourt. He attended the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly, before graduating with a business degree from Université Paris X Nanterre. Bolloré started his career as an investment bank trainee at Edmond de Rothschild. [3]

Career

Bolloré's personal investment career began when he took over at his family-controlled conglomerate Bolloré,[4] which deals in maritime freight and African trade, and paper manufacturing (cigarette and bible paper). Bolloré employs 33,000 people worldwide. He is a well-known corporate raider in France who has succeeded in making money by taking large stakes in French listed companies, in particular the building and construction group Bouygues, where he left with a sizeable capital gain after a power struggle.

In late 2004, his investment group started building a stake in advertising group Havas, becoming its largest single shareholder. He mounted a coup and replaced Alain de Pouzilhac as CEO in July 2005. In 2005, through his family company, he expanded his media interests by launching the Direct 8 television station. Towards the end of 2005, he began building a stake in independent British media planning and buying group, Aegis. As of July 2006, his stake in Aegis stood at 29%.[5] Direct Soir, a free newspaper, was launched in June 2006. In January 2008, he manifested interest in becoming a shareholder of famed, but troubled, Italian car manufacturer Pininfarina.

The Bolloré Group also has important positions in the economies of several former French colonies in Africa (in particular Ivory Coast, Gabon, Cameroon, and Congo).

As of 2018, he is being prosecuted by French justice for corruption and in addition to payment of financial penalty, he is liable to be sentenced to ten years in prison.[6].

Personal life

He has four children from his first union, Sébastien, Yannick, Cyrille and Marie. He is married to Anaïs Jeanneret, a French writer.

He is ranked 207th richest person in the world according to Forbes, with an estimated fortune of US$7.4 billion.[7]

He is a close personal friend of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It has been said that their friendship goes back over 20 years.[8] Sarkozy has been criticized for accepting vacations from Bolloré, as was president Georges Pompidou with his father, Michel Bolloré. They have both stated that no conflict of interest exists.

References

  1. ↑ "Vincent Bollore". Forbes. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "Vincent Bolloré: Executive Profile & Biography - Businessweek". investing.businessweek.com. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
  3. ↑ "Vincent Bollore". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  4. ↑ "Stocks". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  5. ↑ "Aegis' Major Shareholders". Hemscott Group Ltd. 19 July 2006.
  6. ↑ "Mis en examen, que risque Vincent Bolloré ?". Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  7. ↑ Luisa Kroll; Allison Fass (1 August 2018). "Vincent Bollore profile page on Forbes.com". Forbes Magazine.
  8. ↑ "Bolloré, un financier avec qui copiner". Libération. 10 May 2007.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.