Bernard Arnault, who became the owner of the world’s greatest fortune with his family, surpassing Elon Musk, patiently built a global luxury goods empire, the LVMH Group, through landmark acquisitions that established his reputation as a voracious businessman.
Arnault, 73, and his family top Forbes magazine’s billionaire rankings as of Thursday (15) with a net worth of $184 billion, overtaking Musk, president of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter.
“One outstanding quality in our family is patience,” Frenchman Arnault explained in a 2012 television interview. Ten years later and with the LVMH Group’s global sales more than doubling to 64 billion euros ($68 billion) a year he told Radio Classique: “We can keep moving forward, but we have to be patient.” .
LVMH, the world’s leading luxury goods group, has acquired more than 75 brands over the years, including Louis Vuitton, Moët Hennnesy, Kenzo, Guerlain, Fendi, Céline, Sephora, Bulgari, Tiffany and others.
The businessman also invested in media outlets in France (Les Echos, Le Parisien, Radio Classique), a controversial option seen primarily as patronage, Arnault told the French Senate in January this year.
During the hearing, Arnault also admitted that he blocked advertising money for the Liberation newspaper because of a headline he didn’t like.
Born on March 5, 1949 in Roubaix, northern France, the businessman began working in his father’s construction company at the age of 22 after studying at the renowned École Polytechnique, convincing him to switch industries and invest in real estate.
In 1981, after the election of the socialist François Mitterrand as President, he settled in the United States for three years. Upon his return, he acquired the Boussac Group, a heavily indebted textile company, and promised there would be no layoffs.
dior
Despite this, he adopted a drastic downsizing plan and retained only some of the company’s operations, including haute couture “Maison” Dior. Arnault was 35 years old.
“I surprised my father when I visited him and he said we should refocus the family business and invest in something more promising: Christian Dior,” the businessman recently told Radio Classique.
Bernard Arnault had just laid the foundations of his luxury goods empire.
To take control of the LVMH group, formed from the 1987 merger between luggage maker Louis Vuitton and wine and spirits group Moët Hennnesy, he took advantage of the rivalry between the two controlling families and took control of the company in 1989. after 17 lawsuits.
“He’s a tough negotiator, unique, a visionary who knows how to surround himself with the right people and who always achieves his goals one way or another,” Arnaud Cadart, investment manager at Flornoy Group, told AFP.
But his career has also seen some failures, such as the 1999 takeover of Italian brand Gucci by rival François Pinault, who commands the PPR (Pinault Printemps Redoute) group, or his frustrated attempt to seize control of leather goods manufacturer Hermès take.
He doesn’t like speeches or publicity. After realizing a few months ago that social networks are now tracking the movements of celebrities’ business jets, he decided to sell the plane to the LVMH Group. “Now no one will know where I’m going because I’m using leased planes,” he told Radio Classique.
“Entrepreneurs have to face the criticism of the moment, sometimes unfairly, because in recent years the mentality of the country has turned against big companies,” Arnault lamented on the France 2 television channel in 2016.
In the same year, the awardwinning documentary “Merci Patron!” [Obrigado, patrão!] of the current radical left deputy François Ruffin, took Arnault as the aim of his social satire.
Obama, Putin, Trump, Macron
Arnault’s career is fraught with controversy. In 2021, LVMH paid 10 million euros ($10.6 million) to avoid prosecution for a spyware scheme.
In 2013, Arnault renounced his application for Belgian citizenship, apologizing for his muchmaligned decision amid a national debate about taxation and tax exile for the wealthy.
The billionaire has been received by the world’s top leaders, from Americans Barack Obama and Donald Trump who inaugurated a Vuitton factory in Texas to Russian Vladimir Putin.
In 2014, thenFrench President François Hollande presided over the opening of the Louis Vuitton Foundation a temple to contemporary art and his successor, Emmanuel Macron, was the guest of honor at the opening of La Samaritaine, a luxury shopping mall in a historic Parisian building, in 2021 .
Arnault is married to a pianist and has five children who work for LVMH, but he has no plans to retire just yet. LVMH’s last general meeting extended the mandatory retirement age for the post of CEO to 80 years.
Translation by Paulo Migliacci