Bernard Arnault Net Worth

Bernard Arnault’s Wealth Information

As the head of LVMH, Bernard Arnault made his fortune. Bernard Arnault saved Christian Dior from bankruptcy in the 1980s by purchasing it. Following that, he combined a group of luxury companies, including Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Tag Heuer, Bulgari, and Tiffany & Co., using the profits and increasing value of Dior as funding. LVMH generates $70 billion in revenue annually and is home to almost 60 brands today. LVMH’s market value is $384 billion as of this writing.

A further 7% of LVMH is directly owned by the family on its own. They hold more than half of the total number of votes.

Apart from LVMH, Bernard individually owns two French vineyards, Princess Yachts, 5% of Carrefour, the country’s largest supermarket chain, and a multi-billion dollar art collection that includes works by Picasso and Warhol.

For the first time, in June 2019, Bernard Arnault’s net worth exceeded $100 billion. He ranked third in terms of wealth on the planet at that time. He surpassed Bill Gates in wealth by almost $400 million in July 2019 when his net worth surpassed $108 billion, making him the second-richest person on the globe. After surpassing Elon Musk‘s $168 billion net worth in December 2022, he rose to the position of world’s richest person.

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Early Years

In Roubaix, France, on March 5, 1949, Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault was born. The boy’s father was Jean Léon Arnault, a manufacturer and École Centrale Paris alumnus. The father of his mother, Marie-Josèphe Savinel, was Étienne Savinel, who ran the civil engineering company Ferret-Savinel. In 1950, Savinel granted his son-in-law Jean Léon Arnault (Bernard’s father) control over Ferret-Savinel and ultimately gave him ownership of the business. In 1971, Bernard earned his degree from the École Polytechnique, France’s top engineering institution.

Bernard Arnault’s Family-run business

After graduating in 1971, Arnault started working for his father’s business, Ferret-Savinel (which was previously owned by his maternal grandfather). In 1978, he was appointed the company’s president, and he held that post through 1984. While working with Ferret-Savinel, he assisted in shifting the company’s emphasis from construction to real estate, which proved to be a wise business decision.

Bernard Arnault’s Luxury Goods

With the aid of Antoine Bernheim, Bernard purchased the upscale products company Financiere Agache in 1984. Only two of the many companies Boussac controlled were the high-end label Christian Dior and the department store Le Bon Marche. Except for Dior and Le Bon Marche, Arnault sold all of the Boussac assets.

Bernard and his family still personally own 97% of Dior.

LVMH

Bernard bought a tonne of premium brands using the growing value and revenues of Dior. In order to own the combined luxury fashion brands Louis Vuitton and Mot Henessy, Bernard created LVMH in 1987. He made a $1.5 billion contribution in July 1988 and established a holding company with Guinness to acquire 24% of LVMH’s shares.

When rumours started to spread that the Louis Vuitton group would attempt to acquire LVMH stock in order to create a “blocking minority,” Arnault invested an additional $600 million to purchase 13.5% of the company. He became LVMH’s largest shareholder as a result of this action. But he wasn’t finished; in January 1989, he paid $500 million more on additional shares. He then held 35% of the company’s voting rights and a total of 43.5% of its shares.

The LVMH group was about to be dismantled, but he used his influence to save it, and he has since guided the conglomerate through a metamorphosis that has made it one of the biggest leading luxury organisations in the world.

LVMH had tremendous expansion under Arnault. Not only did sales and profit increase by a factor of 5 in just eleven years, but the market value of the company increased by a factor of 15. Arnault has persisted in promoting a decentralised strategy that lets the companies be perceived as independent businesses and firms with their own histories and stories, despite the conglomerate owning a sizable number of them (75 in total as of June 2020).

Some of the additional brands owned by LVMH are Céline (bought in 1988), Berluti (1993), Kenzo (1993), Guerlain (1994), Loewe (1996), Marc Jacobs (1997, Sephora, 1999), Thomas Pink (2000), Emilio Pucci (2000), and Fendi (2001).

Various Investments

Arnault has many other projects outside LVMH on his plate. Boo.com, Libertysurg, and Zebank are just a few of the web startups he financed in between 1998 and 2001 through his holding company Europatweb. In 1999, he made a stake in Netflix through his investment company Groupe Arnault. The ownership of 10.69% of Carrefour by Arnault and the California real estate company Colony Capital was revealed in 2007.

The second-biggest food distributor in the world, Carrefour is also the largest grocery operator in France. He has also become active in the yachting industry. He invested €253 million in 2008 to purchase Princess Yachts. Then, he paid almost the same sum to take control of Royal van Lent.

The Art Collection

Arnault, however, is not just about business; he is renowned for his intense interest in art collecting, for example. Pablo Picasso, a master of abstract painting, and Andy Warhol, the father of Pop Art, have both had exhibitions sponsored by Arnault’s company, LVMH, in France.

Bernard Arnault’s Private Life

Arnault wed Anne Dewavrin in 1973, and the two divorced in 1990. They are parents to two kids together. He wed Hélène Mercier, a Canadian concert pianist, in 1990. Together, they have three kids. Arnault and his family promised to donate €200 million in 2019 to aid in the restoration and reconstruction operations after a horrific fire destroyed the iconic Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.

How much money does Bernard Arnault make?

French billionaire businessman Bernard Arnault has a $190 billion net worth. The largest luxury goods company in the world, LVMH, is where Bernard Arnault made his fortune.

He serves as its chairman and CEO. Bernard has spent the majority of his adult life among the world’s wealthiest individuals, ranking among Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates. Bernard Arnault passed Elon Musk to become the world’s richest person on December 13, 2022.