Bernard Arnault has failed to regain his place on the Bloomberg ranking of the world’s richest people. The French billionaire even recently fell to fifth place with a fortune of $179 billion, down $254 million since the last daily updated ranking.
Since the beginning of the year, the LVMH boss has lost a staggering $28 billion. At the beginning of the summer, Bernard Arnault was still at the top of the list with an estimated net worth of $207 billion. But his wealth has been fading month after month.
Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk remains in first place with a fortune of $248 billion. Behind him is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with $208 billion. Next is Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg with $189 billion. Right behind him is Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison with a fortune of $181 billion.
Biggest loss in the ranking
Bernard Arnault’s decline in fortune is all the more remarkable since the LVMH boss is the only one in the Top 5 to have seen his wealth decline since the beginning of the year (-$28 billion since January 1). At the same time, Musk’s wealth has increased by $19.2 billion, Bezos’ by $30.7 billion, Zuckerberg’s by $61.4 billion and Larry Ellison’s by $57.8 billion.
Of the 50 billionaires in this ranking, only 11 have seen their fortunes decline since the beginning of the year, but Bernard Arnault is the one who has seen the biggest loss, just ahead of Zhong Shanshan, head of Nongfu Spring, China’s largest beverage company, and pharmaceutical company Wantai BioPharm, which lost €24.7 billion in one year.
Bernard Arnault’s downfall is mainly linked to the global slowdown in the luxury industry, particularly in China. According to a report by HSBC Global Research published on September 10, organic growth in this sector is expected to be 2.8% this year, compared with 5.5% previously. 2024 would therefore be “the sixth worst year in the last 20 years,” notes HSBC.
The second quarter results of the world’s number one luxury goods company were disappointing, with comparable growth limited to 1%. When this progression was announced, the stock LVMH on the Paris Stock Exchange fell by 5.2% at the start of the session to 656 euros. Since the beginning of the year, the share price has lost 17.22%.
Source: BFM TV
