LVMH CEO’s wealth deposes Jeff Bezos as world’s richest person
Bernard Arnault is now the world’s richest person with an estimated net worth of $186.3 billion. This puts him ahead of Jeff Bezos by $300 million, who has an estimated worth of $186 billion. Both men are well above the third-placed Elon Musk, whose fortune is estimated to be at $147.3 billion.
Mr. Arnault’s fortune has increased sharply over the past year, jumping from $76 billion from March 2020 to this week’s figure of $186.3 billion. A rise of $110 billion in just over a year.
Louis Vuitton Moët Hennesey is a company that specializes in luxury goods and has produced a pandemic defying performance in the past few months. The group owns 75 brands, many of them household names, including Christian Dior, Givenchy, Fendi, Stella McCartney, and Bulgari.
Mr. Arnault’s reign as the world’s richest man was initially short-lived. According to Forbe’s real-time billionaire tracker, Jeff Bezos returned to the top spot later on Monday, before being surpassed again by Mr. Arnault on Tuesday.
Europe’s Luxury Goods Firms Buck Pandemic Trends
The meteoric rise in Mr. Arnault’s fortune is emblematic of an overall rise in the fortunes of Europe’s fashion and luxury industry during the pandemic. Much of the increase in sales has come from the Chinese and American markets.
In its Q1 reports, LVMH recorded revenue of $17 billion, a rise of 32% over the same quarter last year.
Rival firms have reported similar increases. CEO of the Kering Group, Francois Pinault saw his net worth rise from $27 billion to $55 billion in the same 14-month period, the group owns brands that include Gucci and Saint Lauren. Perfumery giant Chanel’s owners, brothers Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, wealth more than doubled over the same period from $17 billion to $35 billion.
The world’s richest woman also saw a massive rise in her fortune. Francoise Bettencourt Meyer, the granddaughter of L’Oreal’s founder, saw her fortune increase to $87.8 billion on Monday, a rise to $40 billion since March 2020.
From Budget to Luxury
For the best part of two decades, the top of the Forbes billionaires list has read like a who’s who of American business. Except for Mexico’s Carlos Slim, the list has been dominated by the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk.
The rise of Bernard Arnault to the top is the first time a European has topped the list for decades (except for a brief few hours on December 16th, 2019, when Mr. Arnault edged past Jeff Bezos, only for the position to change back when Amazon stock closed higher.)
At the beginning of the century, the mantle of Europe’s richest was held by Theo and Karl Albrecht, founders of Aldi, one of Europe’s largest budget supermarket chains. At the peak of their wealth, the brothers made it into the top ten on the list but never made it to the top.
Bernard Arnault debuted in the top ten in 2005, with his worth estimated at $13 billion. By 2019 he was ranked the third richest person with a fortune of $76 billion.