Xavier Niel

Xavier Niel (born 25 August 1967) is a French businessman.

He is involved in the telecommunications and technology industry and is the founder and majority shareholder of the French Internet service provider and mobile operator Iliad trading under the Free brand (France's second-largest ISP, and third mobile operator).

He is also co-owner of the newspaper Le Monde, co-owner of the rights of the song "My Way" and owner of Monaco Telecom, Salt Mobile SA and Eir.

He is chairman and chief strategy officer for Iliad, but also a board member of KKR and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.

As of February 2024, his net worth is estimated at US$6.9 billion.

Xavier Niel was born into a middle-class family; his father is a lawyer for a pharmaceutical laboratory, and his mother is an accountant.

In 1987 at 19, while dropping out from school, he successfully created then sold his first company, a Minitel (a French forerunner of the internet) service company.

This minitel-site provided sex oriented chat services.

To do so, Niel bought press licenses in order to be able to become a service editor, diverting it in order to set up its commercial services.

Through this, he became a millionaire in euros at the age of 24.

In 1995, he invested in the first Internet Service Provider in France, World-NET, created the previous year by Sébastien Socchard, Philippe Langlois and Pierre Séguret.

This company was sold for 30 million euros the year before the internet bubble burst.

After taking over a company subsequently renamed Iliad SA, Xavier Niel launched in 1996 the 1st reversed directory service on the Minitel.

In 1999, he created Free, a French Internet service provider.

The name came from the fact that modem access was really free, which caused some stir among other (non-free) French Internet providers, as well as it raised some questions about Free's business model.

In 1999, he founded Online, a French hosting company.

In 2002, Free launched a broadband package at a low price (€29.99 per month), which became the benchmark in the market.

At the same time, Free developed and launched the Freebox: the first triple-play multi-service box in France.

The free modem service had brought to the company a strong potential customers portfolio, many of them switching to the broadband for the sake of comfort.

He studied in the 12th arrondissement of Paris at the Saint-Michel-de-Picpus Catholic private high school.

Niel started early by developing telecommunication and data services and embarked at a young age on an entrepreneurial career soon after his father gave him a Sinclair ZX81 computer as a Christmas present when he was 15.

This service was responsible for 1 million euros of revenue per year for Iliad until the end of the minitel in France in 2012.

Niel remains Iliad's majority shareholder, holding 71% of the share capital.

In 2012, he created Free Mobile, which offered unlimited voice calls, text and data at the lowest price of the market in France (€19.99 per month).

In 2014, Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) sold its 55% economic interest in Monaco Telecom to NJJ Capital, an investment vehicle controlled by Xavier Niel for US$445 million.

On 18 December 2014, via its holding company NJJ Capital, he acquired for 2.7 billion dollars (2.8 billion Swiss francs) Orange Switzerland (owned by Apax Partners since 2012), which was renamed Salt Mobile SA in April 2015.

The entrepreneur launched the Iliad Italia brand in Italy in 2017, which in April 2021 conquered 9% of the market or 7 million subscribers with mobile offers for less than 10 euros.

A launch on fixed connectivity is also planned for 2021.

In 2018, the Iliad SA share price collapsed, going from €212 in January 2018 to €95 in November 2018.

After restructuring its assets leading to the creation of the holding HoldCo, Xavier Niel did major maneuvers to reconquer the markets and strengthen its position in the capital of Iliad.

In September 2018, he bought 100% of the Cypriot operator MTN Cyprus through Monaco Telecom for 260 million euros, the carrier was rebranded into Epic in June 2019.

In April 2018, through NJJ he personally invested 330 million euros for 32.9% of the capital of Eir.

Iliad, for its part, took a 31.6% stake in Eir's capital with a call option to buy back 80% of NJJ's stake in 2024.

In April 2018, via NJJ, he acquired a stake in the capital of Tigo Senegal through the "Teyliom" consortium, a company which was rebranded into Free Senegal in October 2019.

In November 2019 he bought back at €120 more than 11.7 million Iliad shares (i.e. 20% of the company's shares) via a public share buyback operation, automatically raising the price to this level.

Thanks to this operation financed by a loan guaranteed on Iliad shares held in his holding company Holdco, he increased his control from around 52% to 72%.

In May 2019 Salt Mobile SA sold 90% of its towers for 800 million dollars to Cellnex

In September 2020, through Iliad, he launched a public offer for the Polish operator Play, leader of the Polish mobile market with 15 million subscribers after having bought a 96% stake on the market for 2.2 billion euros.

In March 2020, he bought 100% of the operator Vodafone Malta through Monaco Telecom for 250 million euros, market leader for telecommunications operators in Malta, in the fields of mobile, internet and fixed communications.

The company was rebranded into Epic on 18 November 2020.