The shares of Bernard Arnault’s French LVMH luxury goods empire reached a record high, pushing his net worth to over $200 billion for the first time. Arnault is now the world’s richest man, Entrepreneurng Report.
The 74-year-old is just the third person in history to build a wealth valued at more than $200 billion (£160 billion). Before their fortunes declined when the share prices of technology businesses collapsed, Elon Musk of Tesla and Jeff Bezos of Amazon both achieved the milestone.
According to the daily updated Bloomberg billionaires index, Arnault’s net worth grew by $2.4 billion on Tuesday to $201 billion. Due to a surge in demand for luxury products among the world’s elite, his wealth has surged by $39 billion so far this year as shares in LVMH have increased 30%.
The $44 billion purchase of Twitter and a 50% decline in the value of the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla over the previous year have reduced Musk’s wealth to $25 billion, which is less than the French billionaire. Musk is a co-founder, CEO, and 13% shareholder of Tesla.
Arnault is the chairman and CEO of LVMH, the company that owns Mot & Chandon Champagne, Christian Dior, and Louis Vuitton. In the last three years, its stock has increased by more than 150%, reaching a new high on Wednesday morning of €853.
LVMH posted record sales of €79.2 billion last year, and the company has started a €1.5 billion share buyback program, which has boosted the share price even further.
The primary shareholder and co-founder of the luxury goods company, Arnault, has promoted his children to important positions within the company. His eldest daughter, Delphine, was appointed to lead Christian Dior, the second-largest brand in the empire, in January. To lead the holding firm that oversees LVMH and the Arnault family riches, her brother Antoine was promoted.
The world’s largest manufacturer of luxury goods, which also houses Tiffany, Bulgari, TAG Heuer, and Stella McCartney, has crucial positions for his three younger children as well. Frédéric Arnault is the CEO of TAG Heuer, while their youngest sibling, Jean Arnault, is in charge of marketing and product development for Louis Vuitton’s watch division. Alexandre Arnault is an executive at Tiffany.
As LVMH declared last month that it would buy back as much as €1.5 billion (£1.3 billion) of its shares, its stock price reached a record high. Sales at the company’s cash cow, Louis Vuitton, which selected the musician-turned-entrepreneur Pharrell Williams as its new menswear designer in February, reached a record €79.2 billion last year, with revenue exceeding €20 billion.
In conclusion, with a $128 billion fortune, Bezos ranks third in the world and was the first person to reach the $200 billion mark in August 2020.
Source: The Guardian
