RICHEST MAN IN BELGIUM DIES

 

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www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-03/albert-frere-belgian-billionaire-buyer-of-companies-dies-at-92

 

Albert Frere, Belgian Billionaire Investor, Dies at 92

 

Albert Frere, the Belgian billionaire whose investments shaped some of Europe’s largest companies in more than half a century of deal-making, has died, according to his Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA. He was 92.

 

Frere became Belgium’s richest man by turning his family’s nail and chain business into an empire stretching from energy to alcohol. He held interests in oil producer Total SA, cement maker LafargeHolcim Ltd., athletic-shoe maker Adidas AG, distiller Pernod Ricard SA and energy company Engie SA.

 

He didn’t operate alone. Frere had a long-term partnership with Canada’s Desmarais family, with whom he controlled Pargesa Holding SA, a company in Geneva that in turn owns half of Brussels-based GBL, the vehicle that holds his investments in publicly traded companies. In 2015, at age 89, Frere stepped down as chief executive officer of Groupe Bruxelles and resigned from the board, while also quitting as vice chairman of Pargesa.

 

He has uncanny timing in making investments,” Henry Kravis, a co-founder of New York-based KKR & Co., said of Frere in a 2007 interview with Bloomberg News.

 

Frere helped to broker some of France’s biggest transactions, including the merger of Suez SA and state-controlled Gaz de France SA in the nation’s third-biggest takeover at the time.

 

He had ‘uncanny timing’ as an investor, Henry Kravis said

Held stakes in companies ranging from Total to Pernod Ricard

 

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Albert Frere, the Belgian billionaire whose investments shaped some of Europe’s largest companies in more than half a century of deal-making, has died, according to his Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA. He was 92.

 

Frere became Belgium’s richest man by turning his family’s nail and chain business into an empire stretching from energy to alcohol. He held interests in oil producer Total SA, cement maker LafargeHolcim Ltd., athletic-shoe maker Adidas AG, distiller Pernod Ricard SA and energy company Engie SA.

 

He didn’t operate alone. Frere had a long-term partnership with Canada’s Desmarais family, with whom he controlled Pargesa Holding SA, a company in Geneva that in turn owns half of Brussels-based GBL, the vehicle that holds his investments in publicly traded companies. In 2015, at age 89, Frere stepped down as chief executive officer of Groupe Bruxelles and resigned from the board, while also quitting as vice chairman of Pargesa.

 

“He has uncanny timing in making investments,” Henry Kravis, a co-founder of New York-based KKR & Co., said of Frere in a 2007 interview with Bloomberg News.

 

Frere helped to broker some of France’s biggest transactions, including the merger of Suez SA and state-controlled Gaz de France SA in the nation’s third-biggest takeover at the time.

 

Oil Deal

The original deal, announced in February 2006, was deadlocked by political haggling and shareholder objections, and it concluded more than a year later, following a meeting between Frere and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to the French newspaper La Tribune. The combined company is now named Engie SA.

 

In the 1980s, Frere became the largest shareholder in the Belgian oil producer Petrofina SA, acquiring as much as 41 percent of the company. After failing to interest Elf Aquitaine SA, France’s then-largest oil company, in a takeover of Petrofina, he turned to smaller rival Total instead. A merged Petrofina and Total later acquired Elf.

 

He had net assets worth $5.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

 

Swapping Stakes

 

Frere often swapped big stakes in small companies for pieces of bigger ones. He did just that in 1996 when he sold his 25 percent stake in Belgian utility Tractebel SA to a unit of Suez, which later led to a merger of the two companies.

 

He had ‘uncanny timing’ as an investor, Henry Kravis said

Held stakes in companies ranging from Total to Pernod Ricard

 

Albert Frere, the Belgian billionaire whose investments shaped some of Europe’s largest companies in more than half a century of deal-making, has died, according to his Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA. He was 92.