At 76, Europe’s richest man has no intention of retiring.
Bernard Arnault, the French billionaire, CEO and chair of LVMH, has just been confirmed at the helm of the world’s largest luxury brand for the next 10 years.
Shareholders voted last month to amend its bylaws, raising the retirement age for its CEO to 85, handing Arnault the reins for the better part of the next decade.
With a personal fortune of some $150 billion, Arnault has been sole chair of LVMH since 1989. He is also the majority shareholder of the luxury conglomerate, which he controls together with his five children, all of whom hold senior leadership positions.
Renowned for his dealmaking skills, Arnault eyed the deal of his life in 1984. In his mid-thirties and after just a few years working in his family’s real estate business, he acquired for just one symbolic franc the Boussac Saint-Frères retail conglomerate, parent company of Christian Dior, then on the brink of bankruptcy. Arnault swiftly dismantled it, keeping only the Dior brand. Three years later, he engaged with Luis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy to join the two firms, thus co-founding LVMH. He gained control of the company in a matter of months and took sole leadership in early 1989.
Thanks to a long series of strategic deals and acquisitions, Arnault has built the most powerful multinational in luxury retail and the largest by market capitalization. Currently worth some $364 billion, his empire includes not only fashion but wine and spirits, watches, hotels, and jewelry. Most of LVMH’s famous fashion brands, such as Celine, Kenzo, Fendi, DKNY, and Marc Jacobs, were acquired in the early’90s. The company then expanded into the jewelry business, first with the buyout of Italy’s Bulgari for $5.2 billion in 2011 and then with the purchase of US jeweler Tiffany for $16 billion in 2021.
The Arnault family currently owns 49% of LVMH share capital and 64.8% of the voting rights. With the recent approval of the bylaws amendment, it looks like its collection of storied brands will remain in the family for the foreseeable future.
