Louis Vuitton owner overtakes Amazon's Jeff Bezos to become world's richest man

Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) owner and French fashion tycoon Bernard Arnault have surpassed Amazon's Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest man. According to Forbes, Arnault climbed to the top position on Monday with an estimated net worth of $186.3 billion. By adding $300 million to his net worth, Louis Vuitton owner has dethroned Jeff Bezos who was the world's number one till now.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos had reclaimed the position recently after Tesla Chief Elon Musk had lost the spot after sliding 8.6% of his shares due to his tweet on Bitcoin. Currently, Bezos holds $186 billion of net worth, and Elon Musk has $147.3 billion of net worth. In March 2020, Arnault's worth had jumped $76 billion while his recent achievement resulted after the fashion tycoon's worth jumped to $186.3 billion on Monday. In the past 14 months, Louis Vuitton had a whooping rise of over $110 billion even in the pandemic-hit conditions. 

In an interesting race, Bezos had reclaimed the position on Monday itself however Arnault returned to the spot on Tuesday, as per Forbes real-time billionaire tracker. 

Other companies held by LVMH

LVMH also owns household names like Fendi, Christian Dior and Givenchy that surged 0.4% during the early hours of trading on Monday. This put Arnault’s personal stake up by more than $600 million against his companies' market cap at $320 billion. During Lockdown, LVMH and Arnault had a successful rise in business while several major world companies were struggling. According to Jefferies analyst Flavio Cereda, LVMH recorded revenue of $17 billion for the first quarter of 2021, which is 32% more when compared to the same period in 2020. 

Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy is one of the world’s leading fashion luxury goods companies that looks after an empire of 70 brands including Guerlain, Marc Jacobs, Sephora, Tiffany & Co. along with a host of jewellery brands, including TAG Heuer, De Beers and Bulgari. Arnault also owns a 96.5 per cent stake in Christian Dior, which controls 41 per cent of LVMH.

Forbes’ billionaires' list

Over the period of time, the list has been largely dominated by Americans especially by Bezos, Musk, Gates and Buffett. In March 2020, the net worth of rivals including François Pinault, whose Kering Group owns luxury brands Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Gucci, rose from $27 billion to $55.1 billion.