[custom_adv] Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault (born 5 March 1949) is a French business magnate, investor, and art collector. Arnault is the Chairman and Chief Executive of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, commonly referred to as LVMH, the world's largest luxury-goods company. [custom_adv] He is the richest person in Europe and the second-richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine, with a net worth of $103.7 billion, as of June 2019. In April 2018, he became the richest person in fashion, toppling Zara's Amancio Ortega. [custom_adv] His father, Jean Leon Arnault, a graduate of École Centrale Paris, was a manufacturer and the owner of the civil engineering company, Ferret-Savinel. [custom_adv] In 1984, with the help of Antoine Bernheim, a senior partner of Lazard Frères, Arnault acquired the Financière Agache, a luxury goods company. [custom_adv] He became the CEO of Financière Agache and subsequently took control of Boussac Saint-Frères, a textile company in turmoil. Boussac owned Christian Dior, the department store Le Bon Marché, the retail shop Conforama, and the diapers manufacturer Peaudouce. [custom_adv] He sold nearly all the company's assets, keeping only the prestigious Christian Dior brand and Le Bon Marché department store. [custom_adv] In 1987, shortly after the creation of LVMH, the brand new luxury group resulting from the merger between two companies, Arnault mediated a conflict between Alain Chevalier, Moët Hennessy's CEO, and Henri Racamier, president of Louis Vuitton. [custom_adv] The new group held property rights to Dior perfumes that Arnault believed should be incorporated into Dior Couture. In July 1988, Arnault provided $1.5 billion to form a holding company with Guinness that held 24% of LVMH's shares. [custom_adv] In response to rumors that the Louis Vuitton group was buying LVMH's stock to form a "blocking minority", Arnault spent $600 million to buy 13.5% more of LVMH, making him LVMH's largest shareholder.
