Bernard Arnault went to stay richer than Elon Musk for a long time?

The French billionaire has climbed to the top of the Forbes world wealth list, and the rising prospects of the luxury market could keep him there for the long haul this time.

For the past few days, it’s been a game of musical chairs with Forbes ranking first on the planet’s richest people. After briefly overtaking Elon Musk on Wednesday, Bernard Arnault (and his family) dropped back a step before regaining the lead on Thursday.

And it has widened the gap ever since. During this Thursday’s session, the wealth of the LVMH founder’s family surpassed even that of the Tesla boss by $3 billion. The French led the Americans by 1.2 billion before the stock market opened this Friday morning.

If Musk is ahead of Arnault in Bloomberg’s ranking, which takes into account only personal and family wealth, the gap in 2022 has narrowed to a drop in 2022. As of January 1, the difference in wealth between the two big riches reached 92.4 billion dollars (270.2). billion for Musk, 177.8 billion for Arnault). Now it is only 3 billion dollars (171 billion for Musk, 168 billion for Arnault).

Bernard Arnault has reached the world’s first wealth ranking twice in recent months, but he was quickly overtaken by Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk.

For Musk, he lost about 100 billion

Maybe this time he went to protect his position. Because if the stock market is gray as central banks tighten access to credit, it’s technology stocks that get punished the most. As a result, tech billionaires saw their fortunes collapse in 2022: -$99.2 billion for Elon Musk (Tesla), -79 billion for Jeff Bezos (Amazon), -24 billion for Bill Gates (Microsoft), each for Sergey – 40 billion for Brin and Larry Page (Google), -82 billion for Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook).

But at the same time, the boss of LVMH lost “only” 9.8 billion dollars. While tech giants have suffered from a post-Covid backlash that has seen their valuations hit new highs, the luxury sector is thriving more than ever.

Thanks to a customer less affected by inflation, Luxury giants such as LVMH, Kering or Hermès showed double-digit growth on third-quarter sales despite health restrictions and rising costs in one of its key markets, China. LVMH, the world number 1 in the sector, achieved sales of 19.75 billion euros in the third quarter, an increase of 19% at comparable exchange rates.

After posting a net profit of 12 billion euros in 2021, the owner of Louis Vuitton or Moët et Chandon could do better in 2022. During the first six months of the year, the group spent more than 6.5 billion euros, which is 23% more than in the same period of the year.

The luxury market will more than double

Although Elon Musk is involved in the business of Twitter, a non-profit company, and paid by the billionaire about $ 44 billion, the signals are green for Bernard Arnault. China, which accounts for 20% of the group’s operations, has eased health restrictions and appears to be gradually exiting an economically punishing zero-Covid policy.

According to the annual study of consulting firm Bain and Company, the global luxury market has grown by 13% this year. If next year will be less spectacular, the firm estimates sector growth between 3 and 8% under various scenarios.

“Until 2030, we will remain on a relatively steady growth outlook of 5-7%. This will mean that the global luxury market will more than double between 2020 and 2030,” said Joëlle de Montgolfier, director of Bain’s luxury division. considers. and Company to AFP.

It is enough to attract investors who boost the stock prices of the giants of the sector and therefore the assets of the French billionaires who are overrepresented in this sector of activity.