Ammon – French billionaire Bernard Arnault succeeded in snatching the title of the richest man in the world by the end of 2022, following American Elon Musk lost more than half of his fortune.
Since he topped the list of the richest people in the world, according to the Bloomberg Index for the wealthy, Bernard Arnault continued to widen the difference with Musk, who suffered a record loss in 2022 estimated at regarding $ 200 billion. So who is the richest man in the world and how did all this wealth put him on the throne of the rich?
The 73-year-old Arnault is the CEO of the luxury goods group Louis Vuitton, and his fortune is estimated at $ 175 billion, according to Forbes.
Arnault has been mainly and semi-permanently near the top of the rankings of the richest people in the world for years, until he succeeded in overtaking Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2021.
Biography of Bernard Arnault
Arnault is the son of French construction magnates and took over his father’s company in the 1970s, before the French billionaire moved into textiles and retail.
In 1985, Arnault began building what is now the LVMH Group by raising $15 million from his family business in order to buy Christian Dior from its bankrupt owners.
Bernard Arnault still holds a 97.5% stake in the famous French fashion house.
Over the next three decades, Arnault expanded his luxury goods empire by helping merge Louis Vuitton with Moët Hennessy and acquiring a controlling stake in the resulting holding company, LVMH.
Currently, the French billionaire controls regarding half of LVMH, which has a market capitalization of regarding $390 billion, generating sales of $60 billion over the first 9 months of 2022.
So far, Arnault has been committed to frequently checking the performance of brands affiliated with LVMH and its competitors, amid reports that he visits 25 websites a day. The French businessman does not hide his pride in preserving the most famous brands and designers in France.
Mask loss
The rise of the French billionaire Bernard Arnault to the summit of the world’s wealthy came following the rapid and record loss of the American billionaire Elon Musk, which followed his sale of many Tesla shares and the acquisition of the famous “Twitter” platform at the end of last October.
Amidst the turmoil of global markets, Arnault’s wealth has remained largely stable over the past months, as the vast majority of his wealth is linked to his stake in LVMH, and since 2020 the company’s share price has grown by regarding 65%.
On the other hand, the wealth of the French businessman grew by tens of billions of dollars during the same period. According to Forbes estimates, Arnault’s fortune more than doubled to $150 billion last year, up from $75 billion in 2020 amid increased demand for luxury goods following a decline in the coronavirus pandemic.
Arno’s story with Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs
Arnault stated that “Sage of Omaha” is his greatest source of inspiration, as he said in previous statements that Buffett is the person he admires most in the business world, stressing that he has great ideas and adheres to them.
The founder of Berkshire Hathaway is known for his buy-and-hold policy while closely monitoring the markets on a daily basis, and Arnault similarly described patience as an essential quality in the business world.
But it seems that he did not follow in Buffett’s footsteps completely, as the second donated $ 45 billion of his wealth to charities since 2006, and he also pledged to donate regarding half of his wealth before his death.
Arnault did not make these promises, at least publicly, and his most famous charitable work came in 2019 when his family donated $ 226 million to help restore the famous Notre-Dame de Paris, which was subjected to a devastating fire in the same year.
And Buffett is not the only American businessman influenced by Arno, as the LVMH president expressed his appreciation for Steve Jobs, the late founder of “Apple”, and it seems that this appreciation was mutual between the two parties, as Arno previously stated that Jobs contacted him for advice on opening a store. Apple retail.
(Eye)
