The Bollore Group has upped its stake in French major Gaumont to 10.06%.

Controlled by the Bollore family and more specifically mogul Vincent Bollore, the group now holds 6.77% of voting rights to the world's oldest film company.

Bollore previously took a 5% stake in Gaumont in February 2002.

In a statement, the company noted that Vincent Bollore has not excluded the possibility of buying or selling further Gaumont shares but does not for the moment envision taking over control of Gaumont from the Seydoux family. Bollore does not hold any seats on the company's board.

Speculation as to whether Gaumont would be sold has flared up from time to time in the past several years as the company has struggled on the production side.

Bollore himself has held interests in almost all the most important media companies in Paris at one time or another from TF1 to Pathe and is the defacto name cited whenever the word takeover starts being bandied about.