Van Thillo family: 932 million euros towards a digital media era

Van Thillo family

The pillars on which the empire of the Van Thillo family are mainly its activities banking and media. Originally, the Spaarkrediet financial entity was sold to Kredietbank in early 1995, at which time it had a network of almost five hundred independent agents and six direct offices. Spaarkrediet subsequently merged with HSA to form Centea, a new name under which they operated. However, not all financial activities were equally successful, as evidenced by the closure of Het Financiehuis in the mid-90s under unclear circumstances to create a Empire of over 1.4 billion euros.

In terms of media, the group is known for its dominance in Flanders thanks to Het Laatste Nieuws and Dag Allemaal, and for the television channel VTM saleseach a leader in its respective field.

Christian Van Thillo stands out for his aggressive acquisition strategy, particularly in the Netherlands. He successfully integrated Dutch newspapers such as Algemeen Dagblad, de Volkskrant and Trouw into De Persgroep. These acquisitions contributed to record sales of 932 million in 2010 por De Persgroep, divided equally between Belgium and the Netherlands. The Group generates 79 % of its sales from publishing, with the remainder coming from the audiovisual sector.

In 2014, De Persgroep proposed to acquire the British media group Mecom, including Wegener, the largest publisher of regional newspapers in the Netherlands, for 245 million euros. After a period of review by the Dutch Consumer and Markets Authority due to concerns about competition and newspaper prices, the transaction was approved in 2015 with specific conditions.

Vision of the future traditional print media is constantly being questioned, but this doesn't seem to worry Van Thillo too much, who remains confident in the coexistence of different media and sees digital integration as a complement rather than a complete replacement.

In October 2017, an important transaction took place when Van Thillo acquired the shares in Medialaan held by the De Nolf family for 217 million euros, making Medialaan fully owned by Van Thillo. This acquisition was accompanied by the transfer of De Tijd and L'Echo to Roularta, another major media entity in the De Nolf family. As far as digital projects are concerned, Van Thillo has concentrated the editorial staff in Antwerp and made hln.be its flagship online product. In partnership with Telenet, he co-launched Streamz, a Flemish competitor to Netflix. The Van Thillo family's fortune is currently estimated at over 2 billion euros.