LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault’s wealth is slumping amid a drop in demand for luxury goods.
The French billionaire’s wealth has fallen from a peak of $231 billion in late March to $185 billion this week, per estimates by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This represents a drop of about 20%, or $46 billion, in just four months.
Still, Arnault remains the world’s third-richest person, and the wealthiest outside the US. He’s frequently traded places with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to top Bloomberg’s ranking.
Arnault is the only person in the world’s top 15 richest people to have seen their wealth drop so far in 2024, according to Bloomberg.
Arnault has a 48% stake in LVMH. The luxury-goods conglomerate, which owns brands including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Tag Heuer, and Tiffany & Co., posted disappointing earnings on Tuesday, with revenue falling 1.3% in the first half of 2024 to 41.7 billion euros (about $45.2 billion). Sales of clothes and leather goods, Champagne, and watches and jewelry had all slumped.
The company referred to an “overall downturn in consumer spending, retailer destocking and an unfavorable market environment in China” in an earnings release and said that its results showed a normalization of demand. The luxury market boomed in the aftermath of the pandemic but has since faltered.
China’s luxury market has seen a big downturn, in part because Chinese shoppers are making their expensive purchases overseas instead, especially in Japan. There’s also been a rise in “luxury shaming” behavior, with consumers being hesitant to buy high-price status items during periods of economic downturn.
Musk is the world’s richest person, with an estimated wealth of $244 billion, according to Bloomberg. This is well below its peak of $340 billion in November 2021, according to Bloomberg figures. Former Amazon CEO Bezos, meanwhile, is worth an estimated $203 billion.
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