Albert Frère one of the richest men of Belgium died
On 4 February 1926, Albert Frère the son of a nail merchant was born at Fontaine-l'Évêque near Charleroi in Belgium. Since an early age, Frère had to help in the business of his father. When Albert was 17 years old, his father died. He had to leave school and run the family business by hemself. Career At the age of 30, Frère started investing in Belgian steel factories, already by the end of the 1970's he practically controlled the whole steel industry in the region of Charleroi. Later he foresaw the coming steel crisis of the late 1970s and he sold his enterprises to the Belgian state after merging them with the competing steel firm Cockerill to create Cockerill Sambre. Frère built an investment empire around the Swiss holding company Pargesa, which he founded together with the Canadian investor Paul Desmarais. Pargesa took over the Belgian holding company Groupe Bruxelles Lambert in 1982. He also bought significant stakes in Belgian companies as: Petrofi...