Page 72 - Forbes - USA (November 2019)

So what do Arnault’s offspring say about which
one of them is likely to lead the company one day?
CLOSING IN As though reading from the same script, they all

LVMH STOCK HAS BEEN SOARING, MAKING ARNAULT ONE sidestep the question. “Our father is very young,”
OF THREE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WORTH MORE THAN says Delphine. “He’ll work for 30 more years,” Al-
$100 BILLION. HE’S $4 BILLION BEHIND BILL GATES AND exandre says. “I don’t think he’ll ever stop,” says
LAGS JEFF BEZOS BY JUST $8 BILLION.
Antoine, head of LVMH corporate communica-
$300 tions and chief of Berluti. “This is not a topic we
68 think about,” Frédéric says. “We hope he is going
to stay as long as possible in this role.”
250
LVMH “People ask me all the time,” says Arnault.
L T S&P 500 “What is most important for the group is we find
U
A 200 the best, and we’ll see if it’s in the family or out-
N side the family.” How long will he work? “I have
R
A no end decided.”

D 150 Though he won’t say which of his children he is
R
A most likely to promote, he is eager to talk about
N their talents. He shows off a video on his iPhone
R
E 100 11 of Frédéric playing a Liszt sonata in prepara-
B
tion for a concert he will give at a music festival
—
outside Paris together with his mother. Canadi-
E
L 50
I an-born pianist Hélène Mercier-Arnault, 59, per-
F 12/31/15 01/06/17 01/05/18 01/04/19 10/18/19
O SOURCE: FACTSET. forms regularly as a soloist and chamber musi-
R cian. “Like a professional,” Arnault says about
P NET WORTHS
Frédéric’s skill. “I’m not playing like that.”
131 As for sibling rivalry, Arnault and his children
BERNARD ARNAULT
paint a portrait of family harmony. The siblings
JEFF BEZOS
112 110
BILL GATES 106 often gather for Saturday lunch with their par-
102 $100
97 BIL ents, and they all spend some of August at the
90
86 Arnault compound in Saint-Tropez. Only Fré-
75 73 72 76 déric admits that discord surfaces on the tennis
court. “It can get quite tense,” he says. “Our father
$50 is very competitive. He doesn’t like losing. This is
45 BIL
42 something he’s transmitted to us.” No one close to
34
the family will make an on-the-record prediction
about succession. But one longtime observer says
that when Arnault finally steps down “It will be
03/2016 03/2017 03/2018 03/2018 10/2019 Game of Thrones.”
Arnault sees the future playing out quite differ-
ently, convinced that his tight-knit family’s con-
to pay $719 million for an 80% stake in the trol will give LVMH an edge for years to come. In
121-year-old German luggage maker Rimowa, fa- his own mind, he’s going up against not only his
vored by A-listers like David Beckham and Ange- competitors in the luxury sector but also global
lina Jolie. At Rimowa, Alexandre later led prod- giants. He calls Microsoft a “beautiful company”
uct collaborations with au courant brands like but notes that Gates has held onto only a small
the American skateboarding line Supreme. number of shares. “Long-term he won’t be there,”
Delphine, meanwhile, leads the six-year-old he muses.
LVMH Young Fashion Designer Prize, awarded Before proclaiming his vision for his conglom-
each year to one designer chosen from thousands erate, he catches himself. “In a way, I should not
of applicants. Louis Vuitton’s Virgil Abloh was say that, because you may think I am preten-
a finalist for the 2015 prize (he had interned at tious,” he says. But then he lets loose: “[LVMH]
Fendi in 2009 with his friend Kanye West). And is a French monument. Because it represents
LVMH has launched an accelerator program for France all over the world. People know better
up to 50 promising startups in the luxury goods the name of Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Dom
sector at Paris’ Station F, the brainchild of French Pérignon, Cheval Blanc, than anything else. May-
billionaire Xavier Niel, who also happens to be be they know also Napoleon? General de Gaulle?
Delphine’s long-term partner and the father of We think it’s important that this group, for the
the couple’s two children. long term, is controlled by a French family.”

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