Bernard Arnault has become the richest person on the planet in the last week. Displacing Elon Musk, the Frenchman has used his LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton empire to rise to first place with a fortune of 186.6 billion dollars, about 177 billion euros. He has 10,000 million more than the owner of Tesla and Twitter.
A fortune that has gone to more and more. Arnault was born in the town of Roubaix, in the north of France and almost on the Belgian border, 73 years ago. He graduated as an engineer from the École Polytechnique de Paris and when he finished he joined the family company, Ferret-Savinel, in construction. With her the clan had made a small fortune.
Today’s tycoon used about 15 million obtained from his father’s business to start his foray into luxury, explains Forbes. The entry dates back to 1984, when he bought the bankrupt textile group that owned Christian Dior. He sold all of the non-Dior businesses and used that money to buy stakes in what is now LVMH. Five years later, he became CEO and Chairman of LVMH.
Arnault has 41.2% of the shareholding of LVMH, which he exercises through Christian Dior. The family has another 6.2%. From there it has been enlarging at the stroke of a checkbook. Fendi, Tag Heuer, Bulgari, Tiffany… Over the years the portfolio has grown, like his fortune. Wealth has skyrocketed, especially with the 130% rise in titles from the minimum they registered in the pandemic. And it is that the luxury sector has remained strong despite the outbreak of the pandemic, almost as a refuge value, and the prospects of recession do not seem to tighten it. Thus, it has gone from 72,000 million in 2020 to 177,000 million in 2022. No less than 100,000 million more…
A veritable empire of 75 top-level brands. They are distributed in fashion (Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Loewe, Fendi, Celine, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Kenzo); perfumery and cosmetics (Guerlain, Kenzo, Acqua di Parma); drinks (Veuve Clicquot, Hennessy, Moet, Mercier, Chandon, Dom Pérignon, Belvedere); watches and jewelry (Tiffany, Bulgari, Hublot, Tag Heuer); stores (Sephora) and other businesses, such as the Belmond hotel group or the Les Echos or Le Parisien headers.
“I see myself as an ambassador of French culture and baggage. What we create is emblematic. It is linked to Versailles, to Marie Antoinette,” he has confessed on occasion, quotes Forbes.
Tireless, every weekend he goes through 25 stores, both his own and those of competitors. A great art collector, he lives in Paris with his second wife, the pianist Hélène Mercier, whom he conquered, according to legend, playing Chopin and other classical composers on the piano. Four of his five children work in the group. Antoine, the eldest and 45 years old, has recently taken on a more important role in the family network. He is the new CEO and vice president of Christian Dior.
Not everything has been an unstoppable rise. It has not been possible to do so with Sotheby’s or Gucci in 1999. Nor has it been without controversy, such as when it was discovered in 2012 that he was applying for Belgian citizenship to seek better tax treatment, something that he finally backed down. His argument was that there he had a foundation to protect the fortune of his heirs.
