Bernard Arnault, who with his family became the world’s first fortune ahead of Elon Musk, patiently built a global luxury empire with LVMH through iconic acquisitions that forged his reputation as an insatiable businessman.
The 73-year-old Frenchman and his family have led the Forbes List of billionaires with their US$ 184 billion for several days due to the decline in the fortunes of Musk, head of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter.
“A primary quality in our family is patience,” Arnault confessed in 2012 in a television report. Ten years later, when LVMH’s annual turnover – 64 billion euros (68 billion dollars) – has more than doubled, he told Radio Classique: “We can keep making progress, but let’s be patient.”
LVMH, world number one in luxury, has more than 75 brands acquired over the years, including Louis Vuitton, Moët Hennnesy, Kenzo, Guerlain, Fendi, Céline, Sephora, Bulgari, Tiffany, etc.
The businessman also invested in the French press (Les Echos, Le Parisien, Radio Classique,…), a controversial activity that he considers more like “patronage”, he assured before the Senate in January 2022.
During his audition, Arnault also acknowledged having intervened to deprive Libération newspaper of publicity for a cover that he had not liked.
The businessman born on March 5, 1949 in Roubaix (north) joined his father’s construction company at the age of 22, after going through the prestigious Polytechnic School, and convinced him to reconvert himself into real estate development.
In 1981, after the election of the socialist president François Mitterrand, he went to the United States for three years. On his return, he buys the deeply indebted Boussac textile company, promising to keep jobs.
Dior
However, it applies a drastic layoff plan and only keeps some of the activities, including the fashion firm Christian Dior. He is then 35 years old.
“My father was surprised when I went to see him by saying: ‘We are going to reorient the family group and we are going to invest in something more promising, Christian Dior’”, recently explained on Radio Classique.
Bernard Arnault has just laid the cornerstone of his luxury empire.
To take over LVMH, which emerged from the rapprochement in 1987 between the luggage manufacturer Louis Vuitton and the Moët Hennnesy wine and spirits group, took advantage of the rivalry between the two families to take control of the company in 1989 after 17 legal proceedings.
“He is a tough negotiator, without equal, a visionary who knows how to surround himself well and who always achieves his goals in one way or another”, summarizes for AFP Arnaud Cadart, portfolio manager at Flornoy.
But his career is not free of failures, such as when his great rival François Pinault, at the helm of PPR (Pinault Printemps Redoute), stole the Italian brand Gucci from him in 1999 or when he tried in vain to take over the leather goods manufacturer Hermès.
He does not like talking or publicity. This summer, when the tours of celebrities’ private jets are tracked on social media, she decides to sell the one from the LVMH group. “Now nobody can know where I’m going, because I rent the planes,” he explained to Radio Classique.
“French businessmen have to embody – sometimes completely unjustifiably – the criticism of the moment, since the mentality for some years has been a bit anti-business”, lamented in 2016 on the France 2 channel.
That same year, the award-winning documentary Merci Patron!
Obama, Putin, Trump, Macron
His career is peppered with controversy. In 2021, LVMH paid 10 million euros (US$10.6 million at current exchange rates) to avoid being prosecuted in an investigation into an espionage system.
And Arnault renounced in 2013 to request Belgian nationality and apologized for this criticized management, in full debate on the taxation and tax exile of the richest.
The billionaire has been received by the main leaders of the world, from the Americans Barack Obama and Donald Trump – who inaugurated a Vuitton workshop in Texas – to the Russian Vladimir Putin.
In 2014, then-French President François Hollande inaugurated the Louis Vuitton foundation — a temple of contemporary art — and its successor, Emmanuel Macron, inaugurated la Samaritaine in 2021, a luxury shopping center located in a historic building in Paris.
Arnault’s five children, married to a pianist, work for LVMH, but he does not plan to retire at the moment. The last general assembly of LVMH extended the age limit for its position of general director to 80 years.
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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