This Wednesday, Elon Musk ceased to hold the title of richest man in the world. With a fortune of 188.100 million dollars today, Bernard Arnault, executive director of Louis Vuitton (LVMH), has risen to the throne of the world’s wealthiest, according to a list prepared by ‘Forbes’ magazine.
#URGENT The French Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH manages to surpass @elonmusk as the richest person on the planet. pic.twitter.com/HycKxFRJqx
– InvestorExperto.com♟️ (@InversorExperto) December 7, 2022
The demise of the owner of Twitter and Tesla came following he made a $44 billion bet to buy the social media firm. To finance the multi-billion dollar deal, the investor was forced to sell shares of his electric car company, sending the value of his stake plummeting.
“Arnault owes his renewed status as the world’s richest person thanks to the dramatic collapse of Tesla’s stock price. (…) Musk sold Tesla shares worth 19.3 billion dollars (before taxes), presumably to finance the acquisition, putting downward pressure on the shares of the electric vehicle manufacturer, ”said the American magazine specialized in the world of business and finance. Musk held first place on the ‘Forbes’ list of the world’s richest since September 2021 -the date on which he surpassed the president of Amazon, Jeff Bezos- until his fortune of 185,300 million dollars was overshadowed by that of the French Bernard Arnaultwhose multinational conglomerate reached sales of 36.7 billion euros -just over 177 billion pesos- in the first half of 2022.
This man is currently the World Richest man. His name, Bernard Arnault. pic.twitter.com/KnKnPScXgw
— hitman ????⁶ (@hit__n) December 8, 2022
Bernard Arnault, the new richest man in the world
“I see myself as an ambassador for French heritage and French culture. What we create is emblematic. He is linked to Versailles, to Marie Antoinette ”, this is how Arnault defines himself in a section that ‘Forbes’ dedicated to him.
The French-born businessman oversees the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton empire, with some 70 fashion and cosmetics brandsamong which are Louis Vuitton, Sephora, Benzo, Fendi, Christian Dior, Givenchy and Tiffany & Co, acquired in January 2021 and considered, to date, the largest acquisition of a luxury brand in history.
JUST IN – LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault & family awarded the title of richest person in the world, Elon Musk second: Forbes pic.twitter.com/4rWn3aCvJ3
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) December 7, 2022
Since he bought Christian Dior in 1985, Arnault’s business has only taken off and added acquisitions. Four years later, in 1989, he became the majority shareholder of LVMH Moët Hennessy, which made him the owner of the world’s leading luxury goods group, according to the company’s official website.LVMH spent 3.2 billion dollars in 2019, in the Belmond luxury hotel group, which owns and manages 46 hotels, trains and river cruises; while the confinement, in 2020, represented a great growth opportunity for the multinational: “it registered revenues of 17,000 million dollars in the first quarter of 2021, 32% more than in the same period of 2020”, according to ‘ Forbes’.
