According to Forbes, Bernard Arnault, the owner of the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), the world’s leading fashion luxury goods company, has become the world’s richest with a staggering net worth of $186.2 billion, beating Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, the biggest online retail platform.
Arnault’s net worth has seen a massive jump from $76 billion in March 2020 to $186.3 billion on Monday. His Luxury group’s pandemic defying astonishing performance has posted a rise of over $110 billion in the past 14 months.
LVMH made the biggest fashion deal with America’s Largest jewellery makers, Tiffany & Co. for $15.8 million in January 2021. 72-year-old Arnault has spent around 538 million dollars acquiring shares of his French label brand controlled by him and his family in recent months. He has now overtaken the world’s second-richest person Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX and Tesla. His conglomerate has reported revenue of €14 billion in the first quarter of 2021, which has surged by 32% if compared with 2020.
Arnault spent 538 million dollars in recent months acquiring shares of his French label brand controlled by him and his family. He had overtaken the world’s second-richest person Elon Musk — SpaceX and Tesla owner, after reporting a first-quarter revenue of €14 billion in 2021, which surged by 32% as compared to the first quarter of 2020.
On the other hand, the net worth of rival luxury brands Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Gucci, has risen from $27 billion to $55.1 billion in the period from March 18 2020 to Monday. Also, Even Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, who is the granddaughter of L’Oréal’s founder, saw a nearly $40 billion bump, to $87.8 billion on Monday.
Pandemic has seen the net worths of the world’s richest people fluctuating with huge numbers, with many jumping by billions. Elon Musk also became the world’s richest person in January 2021, when his net worth hit $189.7 billion, for a brief period of time.