Bollore is the former chairman of Bollore Group, a French conglomerate with revenue of 20.7 billion euros ($21.8 billion) in 2022. The Puteaux-based group has investments in media and entertainment company Vivendi as well as internet service provider Wifirst. It also owns transport and electricity storage businesses.
The majority of Bollore's fortune is derived from his controlling stake in Financiere Odet, the publicly traded holding company that controls publicly traded Bollore Group.
The billionaire owns about 87% of Financiere Odet, according to an analysis of his holding structure and the 2022 annual report.
The value of his cash investments is based on an analysis of insider transactions, dividends, charitable contributions and market performance.
Vincent Bollore was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, on April 1, 1952, the son of Michel Bollore, who'd inherited a family business that made cigarette papers and teabags. Established in Brittany in 1822, the company was bought by Edmond de Rothschild investment bank in the 1970s after it neared bankruptcy.
Bollore studied law at University of Paris X Nanterre and joined investment bank Edmond de Rothschild in 1976. He became chairman and chief executive officer of Bollore Group five years later, after buying it from Rothschild for one French franc. He restructured the business and expanded into shrink-wrap film.
He listed Bollore Technologies on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1985. A year later, he bought tobacco company Sofical and French freight-forwarding firm SCAC. He began buying what became a 26 percent stake in UK advertising company Aegis in 2005, and sold it to Japanese advertiser Dentsu seven years later. The company owns 37 percent of French advertiser Havas and 5 percent of Vivendi, the former water utility that was restructured as a telecommunications and entertainment company. He acquired the media conglomerate after selling Vivendi Direct 8, a TV channel he'd established in 2012.
Bollore is married and has four children, all of whom work at the family business.