Mukesh ambani net worth

French businessman (born )

Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault (French:[bɛʁnaʁʒɑ̃etjɛnaʁno]; born 5 March ) is a French businessman, investor and art collector.^[2][3] He is the founder, chairman and CEO of LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods company.

Arnault is one of the richest individuals in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$ billion as of September&#;^[update], according to Forbes and US$ billion according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.^[4]

Arnault was raised in a devoutly Catholic household. He pursued Engineering at École polytechnique, graduating in He began his career in his father's company, Ferret-Savinel, shifting its focus to real estate, which laid the groundwork for his future career in the luxury goods market.

Arnault's entry into the luxury sector was marked by his strategic acquisition in of the financially-struggling textile and retail conglomerate Boussac Saint-Frères, which included the prestigious fashion house Christian Dior. His aggressive business strategies earned him the nickname "The Terminator", as he revitalized Dior and sold off other assets for profit.

Louis vuitton founder Have an account? Retrieved 26 August French businessman born Best Travel Insurance.

In , he played a key role in the creation of LVMH (an acronym for Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), a global luxury goods company, by merging Louis Vuitton with Moët Hennessy. Through a series of strategic acquisitions and investments, Arnault built LVMH into a leading company in the luxury industry, overseeing significant growth and expansion into various sectors, including fashion, jewelry, watches, and wine.

Arnault's influence extends beyond LVMH, with investments in web companies and philanthropic endeavors, particularly in the arts. He has been involved in notable real estate and yacht ventures. His leadership has led to LVMH becoming the largest company by market capitalization in the eurozone. Despite controversies, including his attempt to become a Belgian citizen, Arnault's business acumen has solidified his status as a key figure in the global luxury market.

Early life and education

Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault was born on 5 March in Roubaix.^[5][6] His mother, pianist Marie-Josèphe Savinel, daughter of Étienne Savinel, had a "fascination for Dior".^[6] His father, manufacturer Jean Léon Arnault, a graduate of École Centrale Paris, owned the civil engineering company Ferret-Savinel.^[6] Raised in a "strict Catholic-Auvergne" style by his devoutly Catholic grandmother, Arnault took classical piano lessons as a child and was educated at Catholic schools,^[7][8] the Lycée Maxence Van Der Meersch in Roubaix and the Lycée Faidherbe in Lille,^[9][10] which takes boarders and prepares them for the grandes écoles.^[11]

In , he graduated from the École Polytechnique, France's leading engineering school.^[6]

Career

In , soon after his graduation, Arnault began work for his father's company.^[6] Three years later, after he convinced his father to shift the focus of the company to real estate, Ferret-Savinel sold the industrial construction division and was renamed Ferinel.

Following the acquisition of a textile company and relocation of its headquarters, the company renamed the real estate branch to the George V Group. The real estate assets were later sold to Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE), eventually becoming Nexity.^{[citation needed]}

– Professional start

Arnault began his career in , at Ferret-Savinel, and was its president from to ^[6][10] In , Arnault, then a young real estate developer, heard that the French government was set to choose someone to take over the Boussac Saint-Frères empire, a textile and retail conglomerate that owned Christian Dior.^[12]

With the help of Antoine Bernheim, a senior partner of Lazard Frères, Arnault acquired the Financière Agache, a luxury goods company.^[13] He became the CEO of Financière Agache and subsequently won the bidding war for Boussac Saint-Frères, buying the group for a ceremonial one franc and effectively taking control of Boussac Saint-Frères.

After Arnault bought Boussac, he laid off 9, workers in two years, after which he acquired the nickname "The Terminator".^[12] He sold nearly all of the company's assets, keeping only the Christian Dior brand and Le Bon Marché department store.^{[citation needed]} By , the company was profitable again and booked earnings of $ million on a revenue stream of $ billion.^[13]

– Co-founding and acquisition of LVMH

See also: LVMH - Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton

He worked with Alain Chevalier, CEO of Moët Hennessy, and Henry Racamier, president of Louis Vuitton, to form LVMH in ^[14]

In July , Arnault provided $ billion to form a holding company with Guinness that held 24% of LVMH's shares.

In response to rumors that the Louis Vuitton group was buying LVMH's stock to form a "blocking minority", Arnault spent $ million to buy % more of LVMH, making him LVMH's largest shareholder. LVMH had been created on the premise that the conglomerate would be too large for a single hostile raider.^[12] However, the premise failed to take into account internal takeover attempts.

The fault became too large to ignore when Arnault had a differing strategic vision from Henry Racamier, Louis Vuitton's president.^[15]

In January , he spent another $ million to gain control of a total of % of LVMH's shares and 35% of its voting rights, thus reaching the "blocking minority" that he needed to stop the dismantlement of the LVMH group.^[15] He then turned on Racamier, stripped him of his power, and ousted him from the board of directors.^[12] On 13 January , he was unanimously elected chairman of the executive management board.^[15]

– LVMH's initial expansion and growth

After assuming leadership, Arnault led the company through an ambitious development plan, transforming it into one of the largest luxury groups in the world, alongside Swiss luxury giant Richemont and French-based Kering.^[16] In eleven years, annual sales and profit rose by a factor of 5, and the market value of LVMH increased by a factor of In July , Arnault acquired Céline.^[13] That same year, he sponsored French fashion designer Christian Lacroix to advertise the company's luxury clothing line.^[15] LVMH acquired Berluti and Kenzo in , the same year Arnault bought out the French economic newspaper La Tribune.^[17] La Tribune never achieved the desired success, despite his million euro^{[citation needed]} investment, and he sold it in November to buy a different French economic newspaper, Les Échos, for € million.^[18][19]

In , LVMH acquired the perfume firm Guerlain.^[20] In , Arnault bought out Loewe,^[21] followed by Marc Jacobs and Sephora in ^[22] Five more brands were also integrated into the group: Thomas Pink in , Emilio Pucci in , and Fendi, DKNY, and La Samaritaine in

In the s, Arnault decided to develop a center in New York to manage LVMH's presence in the United States.

He chose Christian de Portzamparreke to supervise this project.^[23] The result was the LVMH Tower that opened in December ^[24] That same year, Arnault turned his eyes to Gucci, an Italian leather goods company, which was run by Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole. He discreetly amassed a 5 percent stake in the company before being detected.^[12] Gucci responded hostilely and called it a "creeping takeover".

Arnault then upped his stake to percent while insisting he wanted to be a supportive and unassertive stakeholder. De Sole proposed that in return for board representation, Arnault would stop increasing his stake in Gucci. However, Arnault rejected this proposal. De Sole discovered a loophole that allowed him to issue shares with only board approval, and for every share LVMH bought, he created more for his employees, thus diluting Arnault's stake.

The fight dragged on until a settlement in September After the legal ruling, LVMH sold its shares and walked away with $ million in profit.^[12]

In , with businessman Albert Frère, Arnault purchased Château Cheval Blanc in a personal capacity. LVMH acquired Arnault's share in ^[25] to add to the group's other wine property Château d'Yquem.

From to , Arnault invested in a variety of web companies such as , Libertysurf, and Zebank through his holding Europatweb. Groupe Arnault also invested in Netflix in ^[26]

–present: Increasing success and profitability

In , Blue Capital announced that Arnault owned jointly with the California property firm Colony Capital % of France's largest supermarket retailer and the world's second-largest food distributor Carrefour.^[27]

In , he entered the yacht business and bought Princess Yachts for million euros.^[28] He subsequently took control of Royal van Lent shipyard for an almost identical amount.^[29]

From until , Arnault was a member of the Board of Advisors of the Malaysian 1MDB fund.^{[30][31][32][33]}

On 7 March , Arnault announced the acquisition of % of family-owned shares of the Italian jeweler Bulgari, to make a tender offer for the rest, which was publicly owned.^[34] The transaction was worth $ billion.^[35] In , Arnault invested $ million in establishing LCapitalAsia.^[36] On 7 March , National Business Daily reported that mid-priced clothing brand QDA would open stores with the assistance of Arnault's private equity firm LCapitalAsia and Chinese apparel company Xin Hee Co., Ltd.

in Beijing.^[36] In February , Arnault entered into a joint venture with the Italian fashion brand Marco De Vincenzo, taking a minority 45% stake in the firm.^[37][38] In , LVMH sold DKNY to G-III Apparel Group.^[39] In April , Arnault announced the acquisition of Christian Dior haute couture, leather, both men's and women's ready-to-wear, and footwear lines, which integrated the entire Christian Dior brand within LVMH.^[40]

By January , Arnault had led the company to record sales of € billion in , 13% over the previous year, as all divisions turned in strong performances.

That same year, the net profit increased by 29%.^[41] In November , Arnault planned to acquire Tiffany & Co. for approximately US$ billion. The deal was expected to close by June ^[42] LVMH then stated in September that the takeover would not proceed and that the deal was "invalid" because Tiffany handled the business during the COVID pandemic.^[43] Subsequently, Tiffany filed suit against LVMH, asking the court to compel the purchase or to assess damages against the defendant; LVMH planned to counter-sue, alleging that mismanagement had invalidated the purchase agreement.^[44] In mid-September , a reliable source told Forbes that the reason for Arnault's decision to cancel the Tiffany purchase was purely financial: Tiffany was paying millions in dividends to shareholders despite a financial loss of US$32 million during the pandemic.

Upon examination of financial records, Arnault discovered that some US$70 million had already been paid out by Tiffany, with an additional US$70 million scheduled to be paid in November ^[45] LVMH filed a counterclaim against the court action commenced by Tiffany; a statement issued by LVMH blamed Tiffany's mismanagement during the pandemic and claimed that it was "burning cash and reporting losses".^[46] In late October , Tiffany and LVMH agreed to the original takeover plan, though at a slightly reduced price of nearly $16 billion, a minor reduction of % from the aforementioned deal.

The new deal reduced the amount paid per share by LVMH from the original price of $ to $^[47] LVMH completed the purchase of Tiffany in January ^[48]

Under Arnault's leadership, LVMH has grown to become the largest company by market capitalization in the eurozone,^[49] with a record of billion euros ($ billion) as of May ^[50] Arnault has promoted decisions toward decentralizing the group's brands as a business strategy.

As a result of these measures, brands under the LVMH umbrella such as Tiffany are still viewed as independent firms with their history.^[16]

Arnault has said that brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior are successful because "they have these two aspects, which may be contradictory: They are timeless, [and] they are at the utmost level of modernity."^[51]

Personal life

Family

In , Arnault married Anne Dewavrin.

Together, they had two children, Delphine and Antoine.^[6] They separated in In , he married Hélène Mercier, the Canadian-born concert pianist. They have three sons, Alexandre, Frédéric, and Jean. Arnault and Mercier live in Paris. Arnault has four grandchildren, two from his son Antoine and two from his daughter, Delphine.^[53]

All five children—Delphine, Antoine, Alexandre, Frédéric, and Jean—have official roles in brands controlled by Arnault, along with his niece Stephanie Watine Arnault.^[54] Alexandre is the EVP of Tiffany & Co., Frédéric is the CEO of LVMH Watches,^[55] and Jean is the Director of Watchmaking Marketing and Development at Louis Vuitton.^[56] Since , Arnault's daughter Delphine has been with Xavier Niel, a French billionaire businessman active in the telecommunications and technology industry.

Effective February 1, , Delphine is the chief executive officer of the luxury brand Dior.^[57]

Wealth

In April , Arnault was first considered to be the richest person in fashion, topping Zara's Amancio Ortega.^[58] That same year, he set up Pilinvest (Pilinvest Participations and Pilinvest Investissements),^[59] a holding company based in Belgium.^[60] Through Pilinvest, Arnault has been holding an 81% stake in Agache (former Groupe Arnault), the holding company that owns 48% of LVMH and 63% of its voting rights.

In , he established Protectinvest, a private foundation in Belgium set up to safeguard the integrity of the LVMH group until ; the foundation locked up the Arnault children's ability to sell shares in Pilinvest until , by which time Arnault's youngest child turned 25, an age deemed old enough to assume responsibility for LVMH.^[61]

In December , six months before Socialist François Hollande took office as President of France, he transferred a 31 percent stake in Groupe Arnault – at the time considered by the newspaper Libération worth € billion – to Pilinvest.^[62][63]

In , Arnault was paid € million as the CEO of the LVMH group.^[64] In July , Arnault became the second-richest man in the world, with a net worth of $ billion.^[65] Arnault briefly surpassed Jeff Bezos to become the richest person in the world in December ,^[66] and again for a short time in January ^[67] During the COVID pandemic, Arnault saw his wealth shrink by $30 billion as sales of luxury goods plummeted.^[68]

On 5 August , Arnault regained the status of the wealthiest man in the world, with his net worth climbing to $ billion.

This occurred as sales of LVMH's luxury goods surged in China and other parts of Asia.^[69][70] He is listed as "Bernard Arnault & family" on the Forbes Billionaires list.^[71]Forbes estimated the Bernard Arnault & family fortune to be $ billion in , positioning him ahead of Bill Gates.^[71] In , Arnault changed the legal structure of Agache from a Societas Europaea&#;(SE) to a joint-stock partnership to ensure family control over LVMH in the long term.^[72]

Arnault and his family had an estimated peak net worth of US$ billion in April , according to Forbes.^[73] This made him the richest person in the world at the time, surpassing Elon Musk.

Musk would surpass Arnaut in June in net worth with $ billion, as Arnault's wealth dropped to $ billion.

According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index Arnault was the wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of about US $ billion in May ^[74] By 14 June , according to Forbes, Musk had regained first place, with Bezos in second place, and Arnault, with US$ billion, in third place.^[75]

Request for Belgian citizenship

In , it was disclosed that Arnault planned to apply for Belgian citizenship and was considering moving to Belgium.^[76] In April , Arnault said that he had been misquoted and that he never intended to leave France: "I repeatedly said that I would stay as a resident in France and that I would continue to pay my taxes Today, I decided to remove any ambiguity.

I withdraw my request for Belgian nationality. Requesting Belgian nationality was to better protect the foundation that I created with the sole purpose of ensuring the continuity and integrity of the LVMH group if I were to die."^[77]

On 10 April , Arnault announced he had decided to abandon his application for Belgian citizenship, saying he did not want the move to be misinterpreted as a measure of tax evasion, at a time when France faced economic and social challenges.^[78] Arnault also stated several employees requested to leave France for tax purposes but he declined their requests, explaining "the 75% tax would not raise a lot of revenue but should prove less divisive, as now it was set to be levied on firms rather than people, and only due to stay in place for two years."^[79]

Transport

Arnault owned the 70&#;m (&#;ft) converted research vessel Amadeus, which was sold in late ^[80] His current &#;m (&#;ft) yacht Symphony was built in the Netherlands by Feadship.^[81]

In October , Arnault stated that LVMH sold its private jet after a Twitter user began to track its flights and stated he began renting private aircraft for his personal and business flights instead.^[82] The aircraft was a Bombardier Global which was registered F-GVMA.^[83]

Lifestyle

Arnault plays tennis weekly, watches his weight, and works continually.^[51]

Art collection

Arnault's collection includes works by Picasso, Yves Klein, Henry Moore, and Andy Warhol.^[84][85] He was also instrumental in establishing LVMH as a significant patron of art in France.^[86] The LVMH Young Fashion Designer was created as an international competition open to students from fine arts schools.

Every year, the winner is awarded a grant to support the creation of the designer's label and a year of mentorship.^[87][88]

From to , he owned Phillips de Pury & Company, an art auction house, and bought out the first French auctioneer, Tajan.^[89][90] In , Arnault started the building project of the Louis Vuitton Foundation.

Dedicated to the creation and contemporary art, the building was designed by the architect Frank Gehry.^[91] The Foundation's grand opening at the Jardin d'Acclimatation Paris was held on 20 October ^[92]

Political views

In the second round of the French presidential election, Arnault publicly supported Emmanuel Macron.^[93]Brigitte Macron was the French teacher of Arnault's sons Frédéric and Jean when they were students at the Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague.^[94]

Awards and honors

See also

References