Albert Frere

About Albert Frere

Birth Day: February 04, 1926
Birth Place: Charleroi, Belgium, Belgium
Birth Sign: Pisces
Residence: Charleroi, Belgium
Occupation: Investor
Spouse(s): Nelly Poplimont, mother of Gérald Christine Henning, mother of Ségolène and Charles-Albert
Children: 3: Gérald Frère, Ségolène, and Charles-Albert (d.1999)

Albert Frere Net Worth

Albert Frere was born on February 04, 1926 in Charleroi, Belgium, Belgium. Albert Frere owns CNP, a media, utilities and oil empire that he built from his family's scrap-metal business. In July 2008 he completed what some say is the greatest coup of his career, helping push through the stalled mega-merger of CNP subsidiary Suez with French utility Gaz de France. The merged company, European energy giant GDF Suez, is one of the largest independent electricity suppliers in the world; Frere remains its vice chairman. Born the son of a nail merchant, he helped with the family business from an early age. His father died when Frere was 17, so he left school and ran the company. At age 30, he started investing in Belgian steel factories and by the end of the 1970s practically controlled the whole steel industry in the region of Charleroi. He expanded into finance, investing through his Pargesa holding company. In Bordeaux, he co-owns Chateau Cheval Blanc with fellow billionaire and LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault.
Albert Frere is a member of Investments

💰Albert Frere Net worth: $5.9 Billion (Updated at 22 June 2018)

2009 $2.4 Billion
2010 $2.6 Billion
2011 $3.1 Billion
2012 $3.6 Billion
2013 $3.7 Billion
2014 $4.9 Billion
2015 $4.9 Billion
2016 $4.9 Billion
2017 $4.9 Billion
2018 $6.28 Billion

Some Albert Frere images

Biography/Timeline

1970

At the age of 30, he started investing in Belgian steel factories and by the end of the 1970s he practically controlled the whole steel industry in the region of Charleroi. He foresaw the coming steel crisis of the late 1970s and sold his enterprises to the Belgian state after merging them with the competing steel firm Cockerill to create Cockerill-Sambre.

1982

Frère used the proceeds from this sale to build an investment empire around the Swiss holding company Pargesa which he founded with the Canadian investor Paul Desmarais. Pargesa took over the Belgian holding company Groupe Bruxelles Lambert in 1982 and over the year added significant stakes in such wide ranging Belgian companies as Petrofina, Royale Belge Insurance, Compagnie Luxembourgoise de Télédiffusion (CLT), and Tractebel. He actively promoted international consolidation of the sectors in which he was involved, selling Banque Bruxelles Lambert to ING Group, Royale Belge to AXA, Tractebel to Suez, Petrofina to Total S.A., and RTL to Bertelsmann.

1999

Frère is married and has three children. His first wife was Nelly Poplimont, and they had a son, Gérald. His second wife is Christine Henning, and they have had two children, Ségolène, and Charles-Albert, who died in 1999, in a car accident at the age of 19.

2002

In 2002, he received the title of baron from the Belgian king Albert II. He is a co-owner, together with Bernard Arnault of LVMH, of the Château Cheval Blanc winery near Bordeaux. He is a member of the Cercle Gaulois.

2014

2014 : Knight Grand Cross in the Legion of Honour.