Patrick Drahi, a well-known businessman and Franco-Israeli billionaire, was born in Casablanca on August 20, 1963, into a Moroccan Jewish family. Both his parents were mathematics teachers. After completing his primary education in Morocco, he moved with his family to Montpellier at the age of 15.
Patrick Drahi entered the Ecole Polytechnique, considered one of the most prestigious institutes, in 1983. After graduating, he joined “Philips”, before setting up his own business, first in France and then in Israel and several other countries around the world, choosing the field of “cable”.
In just a few years, Patrick Drahi managed to raise an enormous fortune, thanks to his multiple investments in the field of communication and the Internet. He holds shares in the largest French companies such as “SFR” “Altice” and “Hot”. Forbes ranked him in 2016 as the 3rd richest man in France. The same magazine estimated his wealth in 2018 at around $7.1 billion and ranked him on its list of the richest people in the world.
In addition to communication, Patrick Drahi is also interested in the media, a field in which he also invests heavily. He is the owner of “I24 News”, the famous Israeli news channel, “BFM”, “RMC”, as well as the magazines Libération, which he saved from bankruptcy, and L’Express.
Patrick Drahi lives in Zermatt, Switzerland, where he pays less tax than in Israel and France, a situation that has exposed him to criticism from many French government officials who accuse him of looking for tax havens. For his part, he considers that his investments in France far exceed what the French state could earn in corporate taxes.
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