The Kanye West debacle continues. The American rapper who has multiplied escapades for a few weeks and who is notably accused of anti-Semitism is no longer a billionaire since Tuesday. Until the beginning of this week, the author of POWER and Stronger was according to Forbes one of the greatest fortunes in world entertainment.
With an estimated net worth of nearly $2 billion, Kanye West was one of a dozen celebrity billionaires behind George Lucas ($10 billion), Steven Speilberg ($8 billion), but ahead of Rihanna ($1.7 billion), Jay-Z ($1.3 billion), Paul McCartney ($1.2 billion) or even JK Rowling ($1 billion).
But for a few days now, the man who now calls himself “Ye” has seen luxury fashion house Balenciaga, textile giant Gap and more recently Adidas end their business relationship with him.
Adidas goes public
Losses that affected wealth, or at least “net worth” to use the terminology of Forbesabout $1.5 billion.
Kanye West had been under contract with Adidas since 2013 with his line of Yeezy sports products. Royal Bank of Canada estimates in a note the annual income of this brand between 1,700 and 1,800 million euros per year. According to another source, investment bank Cowen, Yeezy sales make up between 4 percent and 8 percent of Adidas sales, or between $850 million and $1.7 billion.
A significant loss of income for the German equipment manufacturer that fell on the stock market on Tuesday and a collapse in the net worth of the singer. Forbes now estimates it at $400 million thanks to his real estate assets, the value of his music catalog and a 5% stake in his ex-girlfriend Kim Kardashian’s Skims clothing brand.
Kanye West more billionaire? The sulphurous singer will certainly not hear it like that. Like Donald Trump, the American rapper has believed for years that Forbes underestimates his fortune. In 2020, he had written to the American magazine to complain about his treatment, estimating that his fortune was according to him 3.3 billion dollars and not 1.3 billion as Forbes calculated at the time. Bis repeated this year with his own estimate of his net worth of $7 billion, more than triple that of Forbes.
According to the artist’s calculations, his contract with Adidas had a net worth of 4.3 billion dollars. Despite losing him, he would remain a billionaire with a fortune of $2.7 billion.
Source: BFM TV
