Bernard Arnault Net Worth 2023: He is a businessman and has a net worth is US$182.8 dollars. Find more about Bernard Arnault net worth, wife, biography, age, height, family, and career.
| Net Worth: | $182.8 Billion |
| Date of Birth: | Mar 5, 1949 (73 years old) |
| Place of Birth: | Roubaix |
| Gender: | Male |
| Profession: | Businessperson, Business magnate |
| Nationality: | France |
What’s Bernard Arnault’s Net Worth?
Bernard Arnault is a French billionaire who made his fortune as the chairman and CEO of LVMH, the biggest luxury goods company in the world. As of this writing, Bernard Arnault has a net worth of $182.8 billion. Bernard’s net worth has made him one of the richest people in the world for most of his adult life. He is in the same group as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates. Elon Musk was the richest person in the planet until December 13, 2022, when Bernard Arnault passed him.
Bernard Arnault Details on money
As the CEO of LVMH, Bernard Arnault made a lot of fortune. In the 1980s, when Christian Dior was about to go bankrupt, Arnault bought him. He then used the profits and higher value of Dior to put together a conglomerate of luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Moet, Hennessy (hence “LVMH”), Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Tag Heuer, Bulgari, and Tiffany & Co. LVMH is now home to about 60 brands and makes $70 billion each year. As of this writing, LVMH is worth $384 billion on the stock market.
97% of Dior is still owned directly by Bernard and the rest of the Arnault family, and Dior owns 41% of LVMH. The family also has direct ownership of another 7% of LVMH. They have the right to vote more than 50% of the time.
Outside of LVMH, Bernard owns two wineries in France, Princess Yachts, 5% of Carrefour, which is France’s largest supermarket chain, and a huge collection of art that includes works by Picasso and Warhol.
In June of 2019, Bernard Arnault became the first person ever to have a net worth of more than $100 billion. At that time, he was the third wealthiest person in the planet. In July 2019, his net worth was over $108 billion, making him the second-richest person on the planet, about $400 million ahead of Bill Gates. In December 2022, his $171 billion net worth surpassed Elon Musk’s $168 billion net worth, making him the richest person on the planet.
Bernard Arnault Early Life
On March 5, 1949, Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault was born in Roubaix, France. Jean Léon Arnault, his father, made things and went to École Centrale Paris. Marie-Josèphe Savinel was his mother. Her father, Étienne Savinel, ran the civil engineering company Ferret-Savinel. In 1950, Savinel gave his son-in-law Jean Léon Arnault (Bernard’s father) the job of running Ferret-Savinel. He later gave him ownership of the company as well. In 1971, Bernard got his degree from the École Polytechnique, which is the best engineering school in France.
Bernard Arnault Family Business
After Arnault graduated from college in 1971, he went to work at Ferret-Savinel, which was his father’s company (which was previously owned by his maternal grandfather). In 1978, he became the president of the company, a job he continued until 1984. During his time at Ferret-Savinel, he helped move the company away from construction and toward real estate, which turned out to be a good business decision.
Bernard Arnault Luxury Goods
With the help of Antoine Bernheim, Bernard bought the luxury goods company Financiere Agache in 1984. He became CEO of Financiere Agache and then bought the bankrupt textile company Boussac Saint-Freres. Boussac owned a lot of brands and stores, like the luxury brand Christian Dior and the department store Le Bon Marche. Arnault sold all of Boussac’s assets, except for Dior and Le Bon Marche.
Even now, Bernard and his family still own 97% of Dior.
Bernard Arnault LVMH
With the higher value and profits of Dior, Bernard went on a shopping spree for luxury brands. In 1987, Bernard started LVMH, an umbrella company that would own the merged luxury fashion houses Louis Vuitton and Mot Henessy. In July 1988, he gave $1.5 billion to Guinness and together they set up a holding company to buy 24% of LVMH’s shares. There were rumors that the Louis Vuitton group was going to try to buy up LVMH stock to make a “blocking minority.” Arnault spent another $600 million to buy 13.5% of LVMH shares to stop the rumors from coming true. This made him the person with the most shares in LVMH. He didn’t stop there, though. In January 1989, he spent another $500 million to buy more shares. By then, he owned 43.5% of LVMH’s shares and had the right to vote on 35% of its shares. Using his power, he stopped the LVMH group from being broken up. Since then, he has led the conglomerate through a change that has made it one of the largest and most successful luxury groups in the world.
Under Arnault, LVMH underwent massive growth. In eleven years, sales and profits went up by a factor of 5, and the market value of the company went up by a factor of 15. Even though the conglomerate owns a lot of brands (75 as of June 2020), Arnault has continued to push for a strategy that decentralizes the brands. This helps them be seen as independent brands and firms with their own histories and stories. LVMH also owns brands like Céline, which it bought in 1988, Berluti, Kenzo, Guerlain, Loewe, Marc Jacobs, Sephora, Thomas Pink, Emilio Pucci, and Fendi, all of which were bought between 1993 and 2000. (in 2001).
Bernard Arnault Investments
Arnault has his hands in a lot of different things besides LVMH. Between 1998 and 2001, he invested money into a number of web companies through his holding company, Europatweb. These companies included Boo.com, Libertysurg, and Zebank. In 1999, he invested money into Netflix through his company, Groupe Arnault. In 2007, it was said that Arnault and the California real estate company Colony Capital owned 10.69% of Carrefour. Carrefour is the biggest grocery store chain in France and the second largest in the world. He has also gone into the business of making yachts. In 2008, he paid €253 million euros to buy Princess Yachts. Then, for almost the same amount of money, he bought Royal van Lent.
Bernard Arnault Art Collection
Arnault is not all about business, though. For example, he is known for being very interested in art collecting. Through LVMH, Arnault has paid for art shows in France that have featured Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, two of the most famous artists in the world.
Bernard Arnault Personal Life
Arnault married Anne Dewavrin in 1973, but they broke up in 1990. They have two children together. He got married to the Canadian concert pianist Hélène Mercier in the year 1990. Together, they have three children. In 2019, after a terrible fire damaged the historic Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, Arnault and his family promised €200 million euros to help with repairs and restoration.