SUCCESS STORY OF BERNARD ARNAULT: ONE OF THE TOP RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD 2022

 

Widely recognized as the Holy Father of fashion, Bernard Arnault is now the second-richest man in the world as of 2021 with a net worth of $189.6 billion. He is Chairman and CEO of LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton). Bernard Arnault is an arts lover who revitalized Christian Dior and built a billion-dollar luxury brand empire. Let's take a look back at his life, his triumphs and his setbacks. Youth and education By training, Bernard Arnault is an engineer Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault was born on March 5, 1949, in Roubaix, in the north of France.

He attended schools in Roubaix and Lille before enrolling at the Cole Poly technique in Paris to study engineering, from which he graduated in 1971. Family information In 1973, Bernard Arnault married Anne Dewavrin, but after 13 years, the couple separated. Delphine and Antoine had two children. Bernard Arnault is now a French-Canadian pianist who married in 1990 and with whom he has three children: Alexandre, Frankie and Jean, with his second wife, Hélène Mercier. Arnault is also an amateur classical pianist. LVMH was introduced to four of Arnault's five children. Antoine, 41, is chairman of Lord Piano and CEO of Berlitz. Delphine, 43, is CEO of Louis and vice-president of Vuitton (and is expected to succeed her father).

The 26-year-old from Iowa is Chairman and CEO and in 2018 Frédéric, 23, became Director of Strategy and Digital at TAG Heuer. Odyssey of professional life In less than 30 years, he became president of the company. As an engineer, he went to work for FerretSavinel, the family construction company. In three years, he renamed the company Férinel and reoriented the company towards real estate, quickly climbing the ladder to become a director and, at age 30, president, succeeding his father. Entered the fashion industry In 1984, Arnault left Férinel and bought the nearly bankrupt textile company Boussac, depriving the company of all its assets except for the Bon Marché department store and the Christian fashion house. Dior, arguably his best investment, despite its stagnation at the time.

 Detected A LVMH Arnault stepped in to arbitrate a fight between the houses of Möet Hennessy and Louis Vuitton after the two companies merged in 1. With the support of Irish brewers Guinness, Arnault (pictured right with Alain Chevalier, then vice-president of LVMH) became the company's largest shareholder in just two years, assuming control as chairman and CEO.

The perfumer Guerlain in 1994; Loewe in 1996; Marc Jacobs and the cosmetics department store Sephora in 1997; Thomas Pink in 1999; Emilio Pucci in 2000; and Fendi, DKNY and French department store La Samaritans in 2001. In Arnault's shopping, there were a few surprises among luxury brands. When he bought Berluti and Kenzo in 1993, he also bought the French newspaper La Tribune. After selling it, he bought Les Echos and Le Parisien.

Although LVMH was primarily a French company, Arnault wanted a large presence in the United States for the company. The LVMH Tower (second from left), a 23-story sculpted glass structure on 57th Street in New York City, opened in 1999 with a Christian Dior boutique on the ground and first floors, as well as a flagship US headquarters. Gucci: the man who slipped through the cracks In 1999, Arnault began what the New York Post called “fashion's bloodiest battle”: a “creeping” takeover bid for Gucci. Gucci responded by instituting an employee stock option plan to dilute its stake after its stock soared to 34%. Gucci was then sold for $2.92 billion to François Pinault's PPR (now Kering). Arnault attempted to take the case to court, but was unsuccessful.

By buying the British art auction house Phillips in 1999, making a failed bid on Sotheby's and then buying the French house Trajan in 2001, Arnault tried to break the Christie's (owned by François Pinault) and Sotheby's duopoly. Within a few years, however, he retired from wrestling. However, the game is far from won: in 2015, he invested in the German online auction site Auctionata. Arnault has invested a lot of money in the dotcom craze. After investing in MP3.com and eBay, he founded Europ@web, a European internet fund, with $91m (£73.4m) of his own money. 

However, one of his top bets, retailer Boo.com, went bankrupt just as he was about to launch it for $3.3bn (£2.7 billion) in 2000. Europ@web was quietly relegated to oblivion. That wasn't bad at all: Arnault took a stake in Netflix in 1999, when it was still a DVD rental company. LVMH opened the Cheval Blanc ski area in Courchevel in 2006, with a two-star Michelin restaurant in 1947, thanks to the Arnault family's passion for skiing. The hotel chain today

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