Belgium’s richest businessman Albert Frere dies

Belgium’s richest man, multi-billionaire entrepreneur Albert Frere, has died aged 92, his investment company GBL announced Monday.

According to Forbes magazine, the self-made nail and screw merchant turned steel, utilities and energy magnate, was worth $6.2 billion.

His death was confirmed in a statement by GBL, the Belgian holding company that he has run as one of two controlling shareholders since 1990.

Born in 1926 in Charleroi in southern Belgium’s fading industrial heartland, he dropped out of school to join his family’s small iron-working firm.

He proved to have a flair for business and by the 1970s his company controlled almost all steel production in Belgium, before selling it into state control.

“In business, it’s your first million that really counts,” Frere once joked to a friend.

With capital generated by the sell-off he developed a series of investment vehicles in several sectors, working with his Canadian friend Paul Desmarais.

The jewel in the crown of his empire was the GBL holding firm, which has held major stakes in several French and Belgian industrial, oil, energy and consumer giants.

He remained honorary chairman of GBL and, with the Desmarais family, the major shareholder in the firm, which also has holdings in Lafarge Holcim, Pernod Ricard and Adidas.

GBL, or the Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, has been listed on the Belgian stock exchange for 60 years and at the end of September had a market cap of 15 billion euros. The shares were up more than two percent in mid-morning trade, in line with firmer European markets. (AFP)