It seems that he is an elegant Frenchman, but with fierceness in his bones, this “barbarian” is keen to buy snakes and snipers.
The throne of the world’s richest man is no longer a Silicon Valley boss.
After the stock price fell 1%, Bezos was worth less than LV parent company LVMH chairman Bernard Arnott and was squeezed to second place on the rich list. The wealth gap between the two of them is not large. Arnold’s assets are $ 117 billion, and Bezos’s net worth is $ 115.6 billion. Bill Gates, the former leader of the list, has donated more than 30 billion US dollars for charity, so he ranks in the third year. Of course, his assets still exceed 100 billion US dollars. Buffett and Zuckerberg are fourth and fifth.
The LVMH group has a huge matrix, including more than 50 luxury brands including Dior, Givenchy, LV, Guerlain and more. Arnold has been doing business for generations, doing business in the construction industry. It seems that is an elegant Frenchman, but with fierceness in his bones, this “barbarian” is keen to buy snakes and snipes.
Arnault was ambitious. Soon after taking over the family business, he mortgaged the company and used the low price of 400 million francs to eat the then crumbling textile group Bussac. What he looks after is Dior in the group. After stripping the redundant assets, he tilted all resources to Dior and put it on the road of luxury.
After Dior, Arnott attacked again, and acquired Celine, the unmanned successor. Generally speaking, family businesses are more temperamental, but Arnault is a cold and aggressive businessman. Three months after the acquisition, he deprived the Celine couple of design decisions. Of course, Arnault also has a very high aesthetic quality and precise and spicy sights , Celine did not hide the glory under his trade.
The acquisition of LVMH Group is a replica of the “barbarians at the door” in the fashion industry. Arnott took advantage of LVMH’s internal strife and the stock market disaster in 1987 to finally attack the old man and board the throne of the chairman of the board. Since then, LVMH’s acquisition has continued, with most of its brands coming from acquisitions. Arnault is also enthusiastic about capital operations. LVMH once owned shares in more than 70 companies and sold 48 companies.
LVHM’s latest major acquisition is nearing its end. It has acquired Tiffany for the highest price ever in the history of US $ 16.2 billion. It can be expected that Arnault’s road to conquest will continue.