Bernard Arnault, the owner of luxury group Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), became the richest person alive, according to the latest data from Forbes Real-time Billionaires List replacing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. However, after a short duration, Bezos reclaimed the top spot with a wealth estimate of $188.2 billion.
Bernard Arnault remains at the second position with a net worth of $185.6 billion on the Forbes Real-time Billionaires list.
What all Bernard Arnault own?
Arnault is the CEO and owner of the luxury goods conglomerate Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), the world's largest luxury goods producer. The group owns more than 70 different luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, TAG Heuer, Givency and Moët among others.
The group is the most valuable company in Europe with a market capitalisation of more than $329 billion.
The early life of Bernard Arnault
Bernard started working in his father's construction company in the early years of his career and earned a small fortune, which he used to buy Christian Dior in 1985 by acquiring its bankrupt parent company, Boussac Saint-Frères.
Soon after Arnault managed to invest and take over the LVMH brand. He then went on a two-decade run to bring major luxury brands under the umbrella of LVMH. The latest of these luxury brands to join the fold was Tiffany & Co, the American jeweler, in a $15.8 billion deal. The deal was the largest for any luxury label.
How did he become the world's second richest?
Through a large stake in LVMH and other brands, his fortunes depend heavily on how the companies are doing on the stock market. If the shares rise, so does his net worth.
While LVMH profits and revenue fell during 2020, the share prices have continued to increase through the year. That's why Arnault's wealth has steadily climbed over $100 billion in just the last year.
After LVMH announced recently that it collected $16.7 billion in revenues in the first quarter of 2021, up by a significant margin from last year, the stock prices rose even higher.
On May 24, LVMH closed 0.4 percent higher than before which led to Arnault claiming the top spot briefly before Jeff Bezos repossessed it.
It is yet to be seen if Arnault can reclaim the top spot as he continues to buy shares of his company while at the same time Bezos is selling his shares of Amazon as he plans to step down soon.
