The entrepreneur belgian Albert Frère has died this Monday at age 92, according to an announcement by the conglomerate that he founded, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL) . Frère, with a fortune of 5100 million euros, according to estimates of Forbes, was the richest person in the country. Took three years retired from the business world.
Frère became the family-owned company, dedicated to the manufacture of nails, in an empire with holdings from the alcohol industry to energy. He took the reins of the group when he was 17 years after the death of his father, so he abandoned his studies. At 30 he began to invest in steel, up to almost control all the business in Charleroi , in the belt of the coal and the belgian steel for the seventies. After it was expanding its investments outside the sector.
An empire of investments
Well, he owned part of the Total oil, the media company Bertelsmann, the cement giant LafargeHolcim, the distillery Pernod Ricard, the group textile Burberry or the energy Engie, which he helped create with the merger of Suez and Gaz de France.
In 2007 it was made with the 5% of the Spanish Iberdrola for just over 2,000 million euros, a participation which was melt in the following years.
The Warren Buffett european
shopping in accurate and early Frère and the tendency to keep positions for decades instead of years, led to make comparisons with Warren Buffett.
“for more than three decades, under his leadership, GBL became one of the largest companies in Europe. Their professional and human qualities have deeply marked our group”, expressed in its statement the company.