{"id":4018,"date":"2024-09-30T11:17:26","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T09:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lama-fortune.com\/?p=4018"},"modified":"2025-02-13T14:41:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T13:41:46","slug":"francis-lemaire-family-fortune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/famille-francis-lemaire-fortune\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Lemaire: Belgium's Radio Pioneers with a Fortune of 69 Million Euros"},"content":{"rendered":"

Francis Lemaire Fortune<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Francis Lemaire, a radio technician from Brussels, is the key figure behind the transformation of the company. Radio Contact<\/strong>has become one of the most popular radio stations in French-speaking Belgium. In its early days in the 80s, when the radio landscape was still largely anarchic, Lemaire leveraged its technical expertise to connect radios by satellite and deploy powerful transmitters that soon enabled Radio Contact<\/strong> to cover a large part of Belgium, including Flanders. Francis Lemaire's personal fortune is estimated at over 69 million euros. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"photo
Francis Lemaire in front of the Radio Contact offices<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Francis Lemaire co-founded\u00a0Radio Contact<\/strong>\u00a0with two associates : Pierre Houtmans and Freddy Neyts. Houtmans, a liberal from Brussels, and Neyts, married to Flemish politician Annemie Neyts,<\/strong> have contributed important skills and political contacts, ensuring that\u00a0Radio Contact<\/strong>\u00a0a presence in all three regions of Belgium. Despite these assets, Lemaire never succeeded in establishing the station in Flanders, mainly due to the rise of\u00a0Radio Donna<\/strong>\u00a0(now MNM), supported by the State under the supervision of the Minister for the Media, Eric Van Rompuy.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"radio<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In Wallonia, however, the success of Radio Contact<\/strong> was dazzling. In 2006, the station was fully integrated into the RTL<\/strong>after a period of gradual partnership. The integration of Radio Contact<\/strong> in RTL Group <\/strong><\/a>allowed Lemaire to retain 24.9 % of the shares, while continuing to benefit from the station's commercial success.<\/strong>. In 2013, GBL<\/strong> (Groupe Bruxelles Lambert), the investment holding company of the famous businessman Albert Fr\u00e8re<\/strong>,<\/a> has acquired 25 %s from the Bertelsmann<\/strong>RTL's majority shareholder. This strategic agreement has strengthened the ties between RTL<\/strong> and GBL<\/strong>two European media and financial powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Albert Fr\u00e8re's influence, through GBL<\/strong>has enabled RTL to extend its influence in the Belgian media market and optimize its operations. The Fr\u00e8re family<\/a>with a tradition of investing in strategic businesses, has played a key role in the group's continued growth. RTL<\/strong> and Radio Contact<\/strong>. Francis Lemaire has managed to make a lot of money. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Albert
Albert Fr\u00e8re<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In 2021, the sale of RTL Belgium<\/strong> to the Rossel\/DPG consortium for 230 million euros, Francis Lemaire realized a capital gain of 14 million euros, bringing his personal fortune to around 69 million euros.<\/strong> Despite this transaction, Radio Contact<\/strong> remains the most listened-to radio station in French-speaking Belgium, with a market share of around 20 %.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Photo<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Today, Francis Lemaire lives with his family in Luxembourg, while maintaining an influential role in the Belgian media. La Lemaire family<\/strong>thanks to vision and boldness of Francis Lemaire, continues to make media history in Belgium, with a fortune estimated at 69 million euros.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lemaire family, led by Francis Lemaire, made media history in Belgium with the creation of Radio Contact, which became the most listened-to radio station in Wallonia. Through integration into the RTL group and strategic partnerships with the likes of GBL and Albert Fr\u00e8re, Francis Lemaire amassed a fortune estimated at 69 million euros. Today, the Lemaire family continues to exert its influence, while Radio Contact remains a key player on the French-speaking airwaves.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,15,114],"tags":[5,13,12,70,44],"class_list":["post-4018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","category-divertissement","category-service","tag-belgique","tag-divertissement","tag-media","tag-musique","tag-wallonie"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":10,"label":"Media"},{"value":15,"label":"Divertissement"},{"value":114,"label":"Service"}],"post_tag":[{"value":5,"label":"Belgique"},{"value":13,"label":"Divertissement"},{"value":12,"label":"Media"},{"value":70,"label":"Musique"},{"value":44,"label":"Wallonie"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/media.lama-fortune.com\/2024\/09\/Francis-Lemaire-1-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Martin Moth\u00e9","author_link":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/author\/mmothe\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":10,"name":"Media","slug":"media","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":10,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":196,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":10,"category_count":196,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Media","category_nicename":"media","category_parent":0},{"term_id":15,"name":"Divertissement","slug":"divertissement","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":15,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":342,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":15,"category_count":342,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Divertissement","category_nicename":"divertissement","category_parent":0},{"term_id":114,"name":"Service","slug":"service","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":114,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":90,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":114,"category_count":90,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Service","category_nicename":"service","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":5,"name":"Belgique","slug":"belgique","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":287,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":13,"name":"Divertissement","slug":"divertissement","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":13,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":331,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":12,"name":"Media","slug":"media","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":12,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":152,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":70,"name":"Musique","slug":"musique","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":70,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":156,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":44,"name":"Wallonie","slug":"wallonie","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":44,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":29,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.lama-fortune.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}