Fashion tycoon Bernard Arnault becomes world’s richest man, overtakes Bezos

A 72-year-old French fashion magnate, Bernard Arnault, has become the world’s richest man as his net worth climbs to $186.3bn.

He overtook Jeff Bezos (worth $186bn) in the latest wealth review released by Forbes on Monday, May 24, 2021.

Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires ranking tracks the daily ups and downs of the world’s richest people. The wealth-tracking platform provides ongoing updates on the net worth and ranking of each individual confirmed by Forbes to be a billionaire, according to livemint.com.

Arnault, who is chief executive of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, saw his luxury goods firm stock increase by 0.4 per cent during the first hours of trading on Monday.

The rise pushed Arnault’s personal stake up by more than $600m and placed LVMH’s market cap at $320bn, according to Forbes.

Arnault’s overall net worth has jumped to $186.3bn, reportedly seeing him edge past Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who is worth $186bn, by ‘only’ $300m in the world’s rich list.

This is coming a few days after Arnault pushed Elon Musk, worth $147.3bn, out of his spot as the world’s second richest man after Tesla’s share price sank.

Arnault has seen his fortune jump more than $110bn in the past 14 months thanks to his French luxury goods firm LVMH, which owns the likes of Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Christian Dior and Givenchy in its portfolio of 70+ luxury brands.

Arnault’s fortune has jumped from just $76bn in March last year to $186.3bn as his luxury goods cooperation has profited despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bloomberg earlier reported that Arnault had spent about 440 million euros ($538 million) in recent months acquiring shares of the world’s largest luxury-goods maker, a sign of confidence that demand for $39,000 Louis Vuitton handbags and Dom Perignon champagne will thrive after the pandemic.

Arnault bought the stock through companies that he and his family control, with the latest transactions disclosed in regulatory filings this week.