Bernard Arnault: The tycoon of the luxury empire "surpassed" Jeff Bezos to become the richest man in the world

With a fortune of $186.3 billion, Bernard Arnault has surpassed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to become the richest person in the world, according to Forbes.

Fired a series of senior leaders, selected new talents to revive the corporation. His decision to purge the old apparatus and effective business strategy made LVMH revived and now become the world's leading fashion business group. It is all the decision of French brand magnate Bernard Arnault.

Currently, the CEO of LVMH owns a fortune of about $ 300 million more than billionaire Bezos and is expected to continue to increase.

Arnault's fortune increased from $76 billion in March 2020 to $186.3 billion on May 24. Thus, in just 14 months, the "wallet" of this luxury tycoon has increased by more than 110 billion USD.

Business ability from a young age

Born into a family with a tradition of business, Bernard Arnault demonstrated daring entrepreneurial abilities at a very young age. After graduating from University with a degree in engineering, he joined the family business at the age of 25. It was around this time that he began to plant the first idea seeds for the current LVMH empire.

During a casual conversation with a taxi driver, Bernard realized that many of them don't even know who their president is, but they know luxury brands like Christian Dior.

At the age of 27, he convinced his father to sell his construction business and focus on real estate. Thanks to his sound business plan, the company with the name Férinel made a significant mark. Bernard became CEO in 1977 and succeeded his father as chairman when he turned 30.

The first difficulties appeared in Bernard's career in 1981 when a great upheaval in French politics caused his family to decide to immigrate to the United States. Two years later, Arnault and his family returned home.

Bernard Arnault's turning point came in 1984 when he entered the fashion industry. Realizing the potential of Boussac Saint Freres - a company with equity in high-end fashion house Christian Dior - he decided to "pour" 15 million USD personally and call for another 80 million USD to become the owner. this textile company.

After the deal was completed, he put the textile mills and other assets up for sale, keeping only Christian Dior and Le Bon Marche. At this time, Arnault held a fortune of $ 400 million and became the CEO of Dior in 1985.

Two years later, with his talent, reputation and not-so-small fortune, Bernard Arnault received an investment invitation from the Chairman of LVMH. Not missing the opportunity, Bernard entered LVMH with an investment of $1.5 billion. In the years that followed, he spent a lot of money owning shares of LVMH.

In 1990, Arnault owned 43.5% shares, 35% voting rights and became Chairman and CEO of the LVMH empire.

Difficulty in management and strategic vision

After becoming the Chairman of LVMH, Bernard did not hesitate to purge all personnel and select new talents to revive the corporation.

At the same time, with the ambition to turn LVMH into one of the largest luxury groups in the world, the CEO is fierce in each deal to acquire a series of famous leather goods brands Berluti, famous brands Kenzo, etc. followed by Sephora, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Emilio Pucci, Fendi, LV... In addition to fashion, this brand's "tycoon" also targets names in the jewelry and jewelry industry such as Bvlgari, De Beers and TAG Heur...

Under the direction of the French billionaire, in just 11 years, LVMH's market capitalization has increased at least 15 times, both revenue and profit have increased by 500%.

One of the differences that shows Bernard's strategic vision is that the brands that when purchased are part of the group but still operate as independent companies, keeping their own culture and identity. LVMH only plays the role of supporting the common interests of each brand.

In recent years, LVMH has continued to acquire other brands in the luxury watch sector such as Zenith, Tag Heuer and Hublot. Notably, the historic handshake between Bernard Arnault and the "witch" of the watch industry Jean - Claude Biver with the deal is rumored to cost about 500 million USD.

According to this magazine, despite the Covid-19 outbreak, LVMH with famous fashion brands such as Fendi, Christian Dior and Givenchy still recorded impressive business results. Thanks to the return of American and Chinese customers to buy high-end fashion, watches and jewelry, LVMH posted a record $17 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2021, up 32% year-on-year.

This is the first time in years that a European billionaire has topped Forbes' list of the world's richest people. Before that, most American entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett won this position.

Bernard Arnault entered the top 10 richest people in the world in mid-2005 with a fortune of $13 billion. More than 10 years later, he was in the top 5 list and became the third richest person in the world in 2019 with $76 billion. Even the CEO of LVMH once surpassed Bezos to become the richest person in the world for a short time on December 16, 2019.

Arnault married Dewavrin in 1973 and had two children together before separating in 1990. A year later, he remarried Helene Mercier, a Canadian pianist.

Delphine, the eldest daughter of Bernard Arnault, is the bright heir to the LVMH empire. She began her career with a position at the American consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in Paris, and is currently the vice president of Louis Vuitton. In January 2019, Delphine became the youngest member of LVMH's board of directors, at the age of 43.

High-class yacht hobby

Iconic in many ways, luxury conglomerate LVMH and its CEO, Bernard Arnault, have long set the gold standard in the luxury world. Yacht hobby is no exception to this rule.

His first major foray into superyachts was the conversion of the 70m Amadeus into a luxury yacht in 2007. Technically, the yacht is powered by twin Caterpillar engines allowing for up to 16,400 knots at a speed of 10.5 knots. In 2015, Arnault sold Amadeus, after which the yacht was renamed Felix by the current owner.

Billionaire Bernard also owns Symphony - the largest yacht that Feadship has ever built. Ranked 50 of the world's top 100 superyachts. Arnault's interest in yachts is not limited to his personal fleet. In 2008, Arnault ventured into the yachting industry by leading the acquisition of British yacht manufacturer - Princess Yachts - from South African investor Graham Beck in a transaction amounting to more than 250 million euros .

This year, Arnaurt is at the age of "seven decades old," many people wonder who will be the successor to the role of president of the world's luxury goods empire. The answer is still kept secret by him, but everyone believes that it must be a good administrator who can continue to draw the dream of this branded "boss" on his behalf.

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