Vincent Bolloré

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vincent Bolloré (b. April 1, 1952 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France) is a French industrialist, corporate raider and businessman.

He leads the family investment group Bolloré and is ranked the 451st-equal richest person in the world according to Forbes, with an estimated fortune of US$1.7 billion[1]. He is married, with 4 children.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Vincent Bolloré is from a well-off family from Brittany, and he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from Université Paris X Nanterre. Bolloré started his investment career as a bank trainee at merchant bank Edmond de Rothschild.

His personal investment career began when he took over the reins at his family controlled conglomerate Bolloré, which deals in maritime freight and African trade, and paper manufacturing. The company he leads today employs 33,000 people around the world.

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 constructions 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 single largest share-holder. He mounted a coup and replaced Alain de Pouzilhac as Havas' President on July 12, 2005.

Further in 2005, through his family company, Bolloré expands 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 Aegis. As at 19 July, 2006, his stake in Aegis stands at 29%[2]. Direct Soir, a free newspaper, was launched in June 2006.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The World's Richest People. Luisa Kroll and Allison Fass. Forbes Magazine (March 9, 2006).
  2. ^ Aegis' Major Shareholders. Hemscott Group Ltd (19 July, 2006).

[edit] External links

In other languages