Frenchman Bernard Arnault drops to the sixth spot among the world’s most wealthy people
Bernard Arnault, the wealthiest of the French people, has seen his fortune shrink by $26 billion since the beginning of the year to $79 billion.
The coronavirus pandemic also had its bitter effect on the richer ones. And the primary victim is none other than Bernard Arnault, CEO of the luxury group LVMH. In Bloomberg’s ranking, the Frenchman was downgraded to the sixth position of the world’s richest.
With a combined wealth of $79 billion, he saw the Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani, head of the Reliance conglomerate, and his $79.8 billion and the American investor Warren Buffet with $80.4 billion, move ahead of him.
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It must be said that the international health crisis has hit the luxury goods industry badly. As a result, the businessman has lost $26 billion since the beginning of the year.
LVMH, the world’s number one in the industry, reported on July 27th a net profit divided by six for the first half of the year. Its operating margin, an indicator of its profitability, fell to 9%, compared to 21% a year earlier.
“I don’t think I have ever seen such a negative alignment of the planets,” commented Jean-Jacques Guiony, Chief Financial Officer of the group which counts 70 brands (including Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Dior, Givenchy, Guerlain, Hennessy or Sephora).
The first woman is French
L’Oréal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers has been doing much better since the start of the year. Her assets have grown over the period by 6 billion to reach 65 billion dollars.
She remains the top woman in the Bloomberg ranking. She is in 11th place, just behind Elon Musk with 67.2 billion.
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François Pinault is the third Frenchman to appear in this ranking. With a wealth approaching 38 billion dollars, however, he is only in 26th position.
As every year, the Americans dominate the chart. Of the top 20 fortunes in the world, 15 come from the United States, two from France, and the rest from India, Spain and China.
However, considering the stock markets’ yo-yo moves for the economic uncertainty about the scale of the crisis, the positions are far from being frozen.