As shares in Bernard Arnault’s French LVMH luxury goods empire reached a record high, the world’s richest person’s fortune surpassed $200 billion for the first time.
The 74-year-old is the third person in history to have an estimated fortune that exceeds $200 billion (£160 billion). Elon Musk of Tesla and Jeff Bezos of Amazon have both reached this point before their fortunes retreated due to the decline in share prices for technology companies.
According to the daily-updated Bloomberg billionaires index, Arnault’s wealth increased to $201 billion on Tuesday by $2.4 billion. As a result of rising demand for luxury goods among the wealthy around the world, his wealth has increased by $39 billion so far this year as shares in LVMH have increased by 30%.
The French tycoon is $25bn more extravagant than Musk, whose fortune has been thumped by his $44bn acquisition of Twitter and a half fall in the worth of the electric vehicle organization Tesla throughout the last year. Musk is Tesla’s fellow benefactor, CEO and 13% investor.
At a Christian Dior show in Paris in 2013, Helene Arnault, Bernard Arnault, and Delphine Arnault were there.
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Arnault is the chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH, which owns Mot & Chandon champagne, Christian Dior, and Louis Vuitton. Over the past three years, its stock has increased by more than 150 percent, reaching a new high of €853 on Wednesday morning.
Last year, LVMH had record sales of €79.2 billion and has started a €1.5 billion share buyback program, which has helped the stock price rise even more.
Arnault, the luxury goods group’s majority shareholder and co-founder 35 years ago, recently appointed his children to key roles within the company. Delphine, his eldest child, was appointed CEO of Christian Dior, the empire’s second-largest brand, in January. LVMH and the Arnault family fortune are managed by her brother Antoine’s holding company.
His three younger children work in important positions at the largest luxury goods company in the world, which owns brands like Tiffany, Bulgari, TAG Heuer, and Stella McCartney. Frédéric Arnault is the chief executive of TAG Heuer, Alexandre Arnault is an executive at Tiffany, and Jean Arnault is the youngest of their siblings and is in charge of marketing and product development for Louis Vuitton’s watches division.
Following its announcement last month that it would buy back up to €1.5 billion (£1.3 billion) worth of its own shares, LVMH’s stock price reached a record high. The company made a record €79.2 billion in sales last year, surpassing €20 billion at its cash cow, Louis Vuitton. In February, the company named Pharrell Williams, a musician turned entrepreneur, as its new designer of men’s clothing.