NOVEMBER 30, 20 19modernity.... It’s like fi re and water.”
That paradox has translated into record sales
and profi ts at LVMH, whose roster of more than
70 brands includes Fendi, Bulgari, Dom Péri-
gnon and Givenchy. That, in turn, has helped
drive up LVMH’s stock price, which has nearly
tripled in less than four years. Arnault, who owns
47% of the company’s shares with his family, is
now worth $102 billion, $68 billion more than
he was in 2016. He is the third-richest person on
earth, just behind Jeff Bezos ($110 billion) and
Bill Gates ($106 billion).
And at 70, Arnault is far from done. In late
October, LVMH made an unsolicited $14.5
billion bid for the 182-year-old Ameri-
can jeweler Tiff any. If the deal goes
through, it will be Arnault’s biggest
acquisition ever. “If you compare
us to Microsoft, [we are] small,” he
says. Indeed, LVMH’s market value
of $214 billion lags far behind the
software giant’s $1.1 trillion. “It’s just
the beginning,” says Arnault.A
rnault’s beginnings in
France’s industrial north
were far removed from the
glittering perch he now oc-
cupies. His fi rst love was mu-
sic, but he didn’t have the talent to make it as a
concert pianist. Instead, after graduating from
an elite French engineering school in 1971, he
joined his father at the construction fi rm found-
ed by his grandfather in the city of Roubaix.
An exchange with a New York cab driver that
same year planted a seed that would grow into
LVMH. Arnault asked the cabbie if he knew of
France’s president, Georges Pompidou. “No,” re-
plied the driver, “but I know Christian Dior.”
At age 25, Arnault took charge of the family
business. After socialist François Mitterrand be-
came France’s president in 1981, Arnault moved
to the States and tried to build a division there.
But his ambitions were bigger than construction.
He wanted an enterprise he could scale, a busi-
ness with French roots and international reach.
In 1984, when he learned that Christian Dior
was for sale, he pounced. Its parent, a textile and
disposable-diaper company called Boussac, had
gone bankrupt, and the French government was
looking for a buyer. Arnault put up $15 million of
his family’s money, and Lazard supplied the rest
of the $80 million purchase price. At the time,
according to reports, he made a pledge to revive
operations and preserve jobs, but instead he fi red
9,000 workers and pocketed $500 million, sell-
ing off most of the business. Critics recoiled at his
brazenness, which seemed more American thangenteel French. The media later dubbed Arnault
“the wolf in the cashmere coat.”
Arnault’s next prey was Dior’s perfume di-
vision, which had been sold to Louis Vuitton
Moët Hennessy, and a fi ght between the compa-
ny’s brand heads gave him an opening. First, he
teamed up with the boss of Vuitton, the leather-
goods company whose founder had made cus-
tom trunks for Empress Eugénie, the wife of Na-
poleon III. Arnault helped the head of Vuitton
oust Moët’s chief, only to get rid of him, too. By
1990, again backed by Lazard and using the cash
from Boussac, he had taken control of the com-
pany, which included Moët & Chandon, the fa-
mous French champagne maker, and Hennessy,
the French cognac producer that dates to 1765.
After conquering Louis Vuitton Moët Hen-
nessy, Arnault spent billions to acquire lead-
ing European companies in fashion, fragrance,
jewelry and watches, and fi ne wines and spirits.
Since 2008, LVMH has purchased 20, bringing
the total to 79 brands. In 2011 it paid nearly $5
billion for the Italian jeweler Bulgari in a most-FORBES.COM58
PROFILE—BERNARDARNAULTFASHION & LEATHER
39%
SELECTIVE
RETAILING
& OTHER28%
WINE & SPIRITS
11%
PERFUME & COSMETICS
13% WATCHES & JEWELRY
9%
LOUIS VUITTON
$12.4 BILHENNESSEY
$3 BILTOTAL REVENUE
$54 BIL
SEPHORA
$10.3 BILBULGARI
$3 BILCHRISTIAN DIOR
$3.2 BILFASHION CIRCLES
LVMH DIVIDES ITS 79 BRANDS INTO FIVE GROUPS. HIGHLIGHTED
BELOW IS THE BIGGEST BUSINESS WITHIN EACH.SOURCES: LVMH; LUCA SOLCA, BERNSTEIN.