Affected By The Epidemic, LVMH Boss Lost The Throne Of The World'S Richest Man.

Just as LVMH's share price hit a new high, the fastest growing market in China was news of a new outbreak of coronavirus pneumonia.

For the CEO, Bernard Arnaud, the world's largest luxury goods company LVMH, these months must have been unforgettable.

Last November, the LVMH group finally realized a long-standing dream of buying Tiffany, the famous American jeweler, for $16 billion. In January this year, the value of Arnaud's family in the LVMH group soared, making him temporarily the richest man in the world. In addition, his company bought a tennis sized diamond, the second largest diamond in the world so far.

However, just as LVMH's share price hit a new high, the latest growth market, China, came out with news of a new outbreak of coronavirus pneumonia.

In January 28th, an analyst asked at the annual meeting of the company how the virus would have an impact on the LVMH group's business. Arnaud replied with no surprise: "let's not panic. Let's calmly analyze the situation."

He said how much the company's business will be affected depends on how long the epidemic will last. "If it is solved in the next two to two and a half months, it will not be too bad. If it lasts for two years, that's another story. " LVMH's main rival, Kai Yun group, Gucci's parent company, has made similar conclusions.

　　 Wolf in cashmere

Arnaud's nickname is "the wolf in cashmere" and "the emperor of luxury", who is famous for his good deal in his life. LVMH was originally a struggling French textile company. In 1984, he bought the company symbolically by 1 francs. Under his management, LVMH has become a luxury luxury brand with a market capitalization of $230 billion.

Arnaud sits on a huge commercial empire and is the real luxury king. LVMH's brands include Hennessy and MOET & CHANDON. Fashion and leather brands include LV, Loewe, Berluti, Christian Dior and Kenzo. Perfume brands include Guerlain, Givenchy, watches and jewellery brands including Shang Mei, Bvlgari, Hoya and Heng Bao.

The LVMH group's annual report last month did not disclose the sales revenue of the Chinese market alone, but the company said that the market in Asia other than Japan contributed 30% of revenue last year to LVMH. But Chinese purchasing power is far more than that. Generally speaking, Chinese consumers spend most of their time buying luxury goods abroad.

As of February 17th, the new coronavirus epidemic has caused more than 1700 deaths. The epidemic not only made China's luxury stores empty, but also prevented many wealthy Chinese from traveling abroad.

Last month, Arnaud announced the LVMH group's performance in 2019, of which group revenue rose 15% to 53 billion 700 million euros (about 406 billion 100 million), and the group net profit share increased by 13% to 7 billion 200 million euros.

LVMH's strong performance also raised its share price by more than 40% last year. But since mid January, LVMH's share price has fallen by 7%, which has also reduced Arnaud's wealth.

　 Once became the richest man in the world.

Since the Arnaud family had a controlling stake in the group, Arnaud was once the richest man in the world from last December to January this year. However, with the intensification of the new coronavirus epidemic, LVMH's share price has dropped, and Arnaud's wealth has shrunk.

Arnaud said he was most concerned about producing high quality products rather than growing for growth.

"What we want is to continue to produce high quality products to meet our customers," he told analysts. Growth is good. It will make shareholders happy. I am also one of the shareholders, so I can not say that I do not care about growth, but this is not our real goal.

Although this year is 70 years old, Arnaud's ambition has not declined at all.

Last November, Arnaud completed the biggest deal in the history of luxury goods, and bought Tiffany, his long coveted American jeweller, for 16 billion 200 million dollars. After the deal closes this year, LVMH will surely bring global support to Tifni's development. Tifni is a jeweler with a history of 183 years. In 1961, Audrey Hepburn's classic movie Tifni's breakfast made it a world-famous brand.

In January of this year, Louis Weedon of LVMH announced that the company successfully purchased a 1758 carat drill, which is also the second largest drill in the world. However, Louis Weedon did not disclose the price of the diamond. This diamond will be cut into several smaller diamonds. The deal also highlighted Louis Weedon's ambition to win the high-end jewellery industry.

This diamond is only the size of the 3107 carat "calan" Diamond discovered in South Africa in 1905. The crown of the British royal family is made of diamonds cut from it.

After the Notre Dame de Paris fire last April, the LVMH group and the Arnaud family immediately promised to donate 200 million euros for the reconstruction of Notre Dame de Paris.

In 2019, LVMH also worked with singer Rihanna to launch a new fashion brand.

Arnaud was born in March 1949 in an industrial family in Rubei, northern France, and studied at the famous Paris Polytechnic.

Arnaud's first job was to work as an engineer in a construction company called Ferret-Savinel, which is also a family business. In 1979, Arnaud became chairman of the company. In 1984, he symbolically bought 1 Christian francs, the owner of the Dior brand, which was in trouble at that time.

Later, he built Christian Dior as the cornerstone of his business empire. In the late 80s of last century, shortly after Louis Weedon and MOET & CHANDON Hennessy just completed the merger, Arnaud increased a large share of LVMH group. He has been chairman and CEO of LVMH since 1989.

Since then, Arnaud has launched a series of acquisition activities, including Kenzo, Guerlain, Loewe, Marc Jacobs, and so on.

Of course, he also had an example of takeover failure. In 1999, PPR company, which is now Kai Yun group, defeated LVMH in the acquisition war, and successfully acquired Italy luxury brand Gucci.

Arnaud is married and has 5 children. He is also a well-known collector of modern art. He collages works of great masters such as Picasso and Henry Moore.

Besides, he also likes playing tennis.