Fashion mogul Bernard Arnault and his family landed the top spot on this year’s Forbes billionaires list, which ranks the richest people in the world.
Arnault, 75, is the chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH, the luxury conglomerate that oversees more than 70 brands, including Louis Vuitton, Celine, Givenchy and Fendi. Forbes estimated Arnault’s net worth to be $233 billion, compared to $211 billion in 2023.
In 2022, Arnault raised the age limit for his role to 80 and is currently actively arranging for his succession by his five children, all of whom currently work at LVMH. The executive also invests in businesses like Netflix and TikTok parent company ByteDance via his holding company, Agache, which backs a venture capital firm called Aglaé Ventures.
In October, the luxury sector bellwether missed market expectations with a 4.4 percent drop in revenues in the third quarter due to lower growth in Japan as the yen recovered from its recent weakness. The group said revenues totaled 19.07 billion euros in the three months to Sept. 30, below a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 20.01 billion euros.
Nike founder and former CEO Phil Knight also made the Forbes Billionaires list this year, nabbing the 30th spot with a net worth of $40.9 billion. Other retail figures on the list included Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (three) and Amancio Ortega (13), the founder of Zara parent company Inditex.
