Francois Pinault: Net Worth, Money and More
Net Worth: $15.6 Billion
Francois Pinault, a well-known French businessman, was born on 21st of October, 1936 in Brittany. He started a wood business in the year 1963 in Rennes as his first business. After finding success in his wood business, he decided to extend his business to the next level by including wood importing and then sales, manufacturing and retailing in his business. The French stock market recognised his company – the Pinault group in the year 1968. Years after in 1990, Francois withdrew his wood business and started to focus on retailing and sales only. Then the group become famous and the company even took several other companies under their name. Compagnie Francaise De I’Afrique (CFAO) was the first one and was the leading company of sub-Saharan Africa. The second company to come under their name was Conforama which was famous in the household goods field.
Another company was La Redoute which has specialization in the French mail-order business. Francois renamed his Pinault group as PPR group and even with the acquisition of FNAC he expanded the portfolio of the group. The renowned company gained the highest limelight in the year 1999 when after acquiring the Gucci group it was listed as the 3rd largest firm among the luxury goods sector around the world. The PPR group also acquired Puma in the year 2007 and showed the signs of its undefined growth. With the help of its leading and most famous brands PPR is still running great in key markets.
Career:
Francois Pinault was not born in a rich family, in fact he was just a son of a poor peasant but with his hard-work and strong will to become a famous businessman he started his timber business and became what he is today. Now he is the proud founder of the PPR group which is a fashion conglomerate. He is responsible for the collaboration of many famous fashion brands like Yves Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, Gucci and Alexander McQueen with his company. In the year 1992, Francois established his own private company – Artemis which functions as a headquarters of the Chateau-Latour vineyard, Bordeaux along with L’Agefi (a daily newspaper) and Le Point (the news magazine). After taking his business to a great extend, Francois entrusted his entire business to his son Francois-Henry Pinault and now his son pompously manages the PPR group.
Net Worth:
The entire business of Francois Pinault is self made and is very much independent. With a net worth of $15.6, Francois Pinault is the 57th richest person on this entire planet. The source of his wealth is mainly his independent business. He is the single owner of Christie’s which is a auction house. He even sold his art of worth $5.9 billion at an auction in the year 2013. Among his personal collections he had two bronze statues which he later turned to the Chinese government as an agreement to their leadership. This agreement did also boost his crucial market value. The two famous Venice museums – the Punta Della Dogana and the Palazzo Grassi also displays some arts from his collections. His huge mansion in Los Angeles was worth a $16.5 million. An equally lavish manor located in St. Tropez and also in London adds to his richness. Around March 2013, Forbes mentioned his net worth as $15 million making him as the 3rd richest man in France and the 53rd richest man around the entire world. Francois Pinault has three sons and one of his sons now holds his complete business. His son was in the headlines last year because of his supermodel wife – Linda Evangelista as they both filed the custody of their only son after their divorce.
Life as an Art Collector:
Apart from being a role model and a fashionista, Francois Pinault is an art collector also. And art collection is his biggest passion from years. He has indeed the maximum collections of modern-day art worldwide. Because of his involvement in art, he also bought the ownership of the great Palazzo Grassi which is in Venice, in order to display some stuffs from his personal art collections. Amaong his collections some were the works of the famous Damien Hirst. The names of his first three exhibitions which were held in Palazzo Grassi were “Where Are We Going” (in 2006), “Post Pop” (in 2007) and Sequence 1 (in 2007). The well-known magazine “Art Review” named Francois as the most powerful person in modern art in the year 2006. Still he is very much active when it comes to art and in the recent years also he has presented some art exhibitions at Palazzo Grassi only. Previously he did organise some exhibitions outside Venice also including “Agony and Ecstasy” held in 2011. His never ending love for art made him spent over three decades praising art.
More about Him:
After handling his entire business Group Artemis to his son, Francois Henri, he took more interest in his art collections and held many exhibitions over the years. Nowadays he is famous more as an art collector than as a businessman. Like his father he also has some possessions of great value. One of them is the Chateau Latour which is among the original 4 Bourdeaux 1st growth wine estates. According to Forbes, Francois Pinault and his family always had a net worth over $15 million. France Pinault is no doubt regarded as one of the businessman of all times in France especially.
