Bernard Arnault: Setting an indelible...
Bernard Arnault, 69 years old, is a French business magnate. He is the richest person in Europe and the fourth richest person in the world, according to the Forbes magazine, with a net worth of US $ 74.7 billion, as of November 2018.
Arnault has built an empire from some of the most glamorous names in French luxury goods, including the iconic House of Dior, the luxury goods and champagne giant Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) and internationally renowned brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Givenchy and Celine. Each brand’s individual success is attributed to Arnault’s policy of allowing it to operate independently and promote its own point of view and identity.
Having outraged the French establishment with his ferocious takeovers of long-established aristocratic concerns, Arnault further inflamed opinion by employing bold new designers and introducing modern manufacturing methods to an industry steeped in tradition.
After earning a degree in engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, Arnault joined his family’s property and construction business. His father was an owner of a civil engineering company.
Arnault convinced his father to liquidate the construction division of the company for 40 million French francs and to change the focus of the company to real estate. Using the name Ferinel, the new company developed a specialty in holiday accommodation. Appointed as Director of Company in 1974, he became CEO in 1977. Two years later, he succeeded his father as President of the company.
In 1981, the French Socialists came to power, forcing Arnault and his family to move to the United States. Being the astute businessman that he was, he prospered there too, developing condominiums in Palm Beach, Florida. Eventually he began to build a U.S. branch of his family’s property business.
The political scenario in France changed in 1983. The French Socialists switched to a more conservative economic course and Arnault decided to return home.
In 1985, Arnault saw a lucrative opportunity when the textile firm Boussac Saint-freres went bankrupt. This organisation comprised several businesses, including the couture house of Christian Dior. Arnault collaborated with Antoine Bernheim, the managing partner of the investment firm of Lazard Freres, who arranged the financing for his acquisition of Boussac.
Arnault invested US $ 15 million of his own money and Bernheim helped him to raise the reminder of US $ 80 million purchase price. Upon this acquisition, Arnault sold most of the company’s assets earning US $ 400 million but retaining only the prestigious Christian Dior brand and Le Bon Marche department store.
In 1987, he was invited to invest in LVMH, a conglomerate of luxury goods consisting clothing, cosmetics, fashion accessories to, spirits, watches and wines by the company’s Chairman Henri Racamier. Arnault chose to invest through a joint venture with Guinness
PLC that held 24 percent of LVMH’S shares. Over the next couple of years, he continued to buy more shares in the company, spending several hundred million in the process. By January 1989, Arnault had managed to gain control over 43.5 percent of the shares with 35 percent of the voting rights. He was then unanimously elected chairman of the executive management board.
After taking over LVMH, he fired several of the company’s top executives and chose to recruit new talent to revitalize the company. He implemented an ambitious plan of growth and expansion by acquiring several other companies over the 1990s, including the perfume firm Guerlain (1994), Loewe (1996), Marc Jacobs (1997), Sephora (1997) and Thomas Pink (1999).
Arnault’s takeover of the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH was a highly ambitious one. He displayed his determination and ruthlessness in the systematic and well-calculated takeover of the company. He integrated successfully various famous brands into the group. In addition to LVMH, Arnault has invested in Netflix and Blue Capital and also took a major stake in the French food chain Carrefour.
Bernard Arnault has been married twice. He has two children from his first marriage and three from his second. He is also a great philanthropist.