The richest man in the world is Bernard Arnault, who you may not have heard of.
According to the Forbes list, the Frenchman has a personal fortune of 176.6 billion dollars, but on Tuesday he had a bad day, losing 11 billion dollars.
The LVMH empire, owned by Arnault, includes more than 70 fashion and beauty companies, including Christian Dior, Sephora, Moet & Chandon, and Louis Vuitton.
He added the jewelry retailer Tifanny & Co. in 2021 after purchasing it for $15.6 billion, and he also purchased the Belmond hotel chain in 2019.
He is the world’s richest man, yet the general public is not familiar with him. He is referred to as “the silent owner of luxury” due to the secrecy with which he lives.
The 74-year-old South African is just slightly wealthier than Elon Musk, with a fortune estimated at $146.5 billion.
Even though Arnault’s firm is flourishing, he experienced a surprising setback on Tuesday when he lost 11 billion dollars in a single day.
According to Bloomberg, the cause is that his LVMH stock dropped 5% on the Paris stock exchange.
At a luxury conference in Paris, Edouard Aubin, a Morgan Stanley analyst, pointed out that the decline coincided with a “relatively more subdued” performance in the US.
As a result, LVMH shares decreased throughout Europe, and Wednesday was not expected to see any more drops.
According to analysts at Deutsche Bank, the US downturn is a “recent concern” and has made investors more wary.
“The luxury sector remains a crowded long for many investors, with the sector’s premium to the market at historically high levels,” the analysts said.
In addition, Wednesday is a bad day for Wall Street and other European financial markets.