FILE PHOTO: Serge Dassault, French UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) political party member and Chairman and CEO of Groupe Dassault Holding, poses after the company’s 2014 First-Half results presentation in Saint Cloud near Paris July 25, 2014. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo
May 28, 2018
PARIS (Reuters) – French billionaire industrialist Serge Dassault, whose group builds Rafale warplanes, died in Paris on Monday aged 93, a spokesman for Dassault Group said.
He was the fifth richest person in France according to Challenges magazine.
The Dassault group which his father had created controls Dassault Aviation <AVMD.PA> national newspaper Le Figaro as well as holding major stakes in Dassault Systemes <DAST.PA> and Thales <TCFP.PA> and smaller stakes in several other listed French businesses.
Dassault, also a conservative politician, had passed on leadership of Dassault Aviation in 2000 but he was still chairing Dassault Group.
He died in his Paris office around 4 pm (10.00 a.m. ET), the spokesman said.
(Reporting by Jean-Michel Belot; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Matthias Blamont)