- Five French luxury icons grew $50 billion richer last week on the back of China’s stimulus plans.
- LVMH’s Arnault, the L’Oréal heiress, the brothers behind Chanel, and Kering’s founder all made bank.
- They were still much richer at their peak, and two rank among the biggest wealth losers this year.
Five titans of French fashion and beauty added a full $50 billion to their fortunes last week, boosting their combined wealth to more than $420 billion. The trigger was China unveiling its stimulus plans, which stoked hopes of a consumer-spending rebound and sparked a stock-market rally.
LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault grew $30 billion richer in just five trading days thanks to a 19% surge in shares of the luxury behemoth behind Louis Vuitton, Sephora, and Tiffany & Co.
His net worth soared to $207 billion, propelling him past Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg into third place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the granddaughter of L’Oréal’s founder, notched an $8 billion gain between Monday and Friday as shares of her family’s cosmetics company jumped. She now ranks 19th on the rich list with a $93.5 billion fortune, just behind Alice Walton, the Walmart heiress and world’s wealthiest woman with a $99.5 billion net worth.
Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, whose grandfather cofounded Chanel with Coco Chanel, gained nearly $5 billion apiece last week. The brothers’ estimated fortunes of $48.1 billion each put them 29th and 30th in the wealth rankings.
Kering founder François Pinault’s net worth rose by $2.3 billion to $25.6 billion last week, placing him 78th on the list. His son now runs the luxury powerhouse behind Gucci, Balenciaga, and Yves Saint Laurent.
These five individuals all rank among France’s six wealthiest people, along with Rodolphe Saadé, the chairman of logistics giant CMA CGM Group and the world’s 44th richest person after a $15 billion wealth jump this year.
Wear and tear
Prior to last week, Arnault was the world’s biggest wealth loser this year with a $30 billion drop. But that decline was virtually erased by the LVMH stock surge, leaving him only $300 million in the red at Friday’s close.
His luxury peers haven’t been so lucky, however. Pinault has shed the third-most wealth with a near-$10 billion decline, while Bettencourt Meyers places fifth on that unflattering list with a $6.2 billion drop. As for the Wertheimers, they’re up about $1 billion going into the fourth quarter.
Despite their significant gains, the French quintet is still far less rich than at its peak. Arnault was worth $24 billion more at $231 billion in March, which made him the world’s wealthiest person at the time.
Bettencourt Meyers was $7.5 billion richer at $101 billion in June, while the Chanel siblings were each worth about $6.4 billion more at roughly $55 billion around the same time. Pinault was worth over $11 billion more at $36.7 billion in February.
Of course, their $422 billion of joint wealth is still staggering. It makes the five more valuable together than Procter & Gamble, Home Depot, or Costco, which are each valued at between $390 billion and $410 billion.
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