Bernard Arnault, the owner of the French brand Louis Vuitton (LVMH) has managed once again to reach the top of the list of the richest people in the world, dethroning Jeff Bezos. As it happened in the past, everything indicates that this situation is temporary, as this ascension is based on the sudden rise of his luxury company’s share price.
According to the Forbes Multi-Billionaire Index, Arnault woke up this Thursday with a net worth valued at $ 196 billion (165.91 billion euros), thus surpassing Jeff Bezos who now owns $ 186 billion (157.45 billion euros). Shares in the luxury group rose 2.2 percent to nearly $165.2 (139.84 euros) per share, according to Market Watch data.
In late 1980, Arnault bought 44% of LVMH, which owns brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Bulgari, Tag Heuer, Sephora and Hennessy. Currently, the multimillionaire already has a 47% stake in this group, which since January has seen shares soar by about 30% in cumulative terms, according to the US press.
In the first half of this year, Louis Vuitton’s revenue increased 14%, compared to 2019 figures, to $17.4 billion (14.72 billion euros).
In June, the millionaire had already managed to become the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of 156.3 billion euros, 251.37 million euros, above the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin. Elon Musk kept his third place untouched, with a net worth estimated at €123.42 billion.
Arnault’s achievement was mainly due to the 0.4% rise in LVMH’s share price. The multimillionaire repeated the feat again in July.
After Amazon’s second-quarter results were presented, which proved weaker than expected, Jeff Bezos’ fortune suffered with a loss of more than 13 billion euros.
Among the “big tech” companies, Amazon was the only one that fell short of expectations. In the second quarter, it reported profits of $7.78 billion (6.67 billion euros) and sales of $113.1 billion (98.2 billion euros).
According to ‘Bloomberg’, the market results failed to meet Wall Street’s expectations and heralded the end of the company’s pandemic-driven sales surge. The fall erased 80% of its equity earnings from Jeff Bezos in 2021.
Elon Musk, retains his “eternal” third place, with a net worth of $160 billion (€135.44 billion), largely secured by the 22.4% stake in Tesla and the return on investment in SpaceX.
