Bouygues denies its chief executive has died

PARIS (Reuters) - French construction-to-media group Bouygues denied reports on Saturday that its CEO, Martin Bouygues, had died. "The Bouygues Group formally denies the death of its CEO Martin Bouygues and regrets that such a rumor could have spread," a Bouygues spokesman told Reuters by phone. Agence France-Presse had reported the 62-year-old businessman's death, citing a mayor of the northwestern Orne region, where Bouygues has a home. The news agency later apologized for the mistake. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls reacted to the erroneous news on Twitter: "Glad to have had Martin Bouygues on the phone and to have shared his astonishment". Bouygues has run the family-controlled group, which also builds roads and owns TF1, the country's biggest private broadcaster, for more than 20 years. (Reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic and Gerard Bon, writing by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by David Holmes and Louise Heavens)