The wealth of France’s luxury and cosmetics titans swelled to unprecedented heights during the pandemic era, when consumers snapped up pricey handbags, gowns and grooming products.
Now, three of the country’s biggest billionaires — Bernard Arnault, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and Francois Pinault — are seeing their fortunes dwindle as restraint replaces indulgence.
The trio, who remain among the world’s richest individuals, have collectively lost $58 billion this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The decline comes as the industry giants they control — LVMH, L’Oréal SA and Kering SA — report reduced demand for high-end goods, especially in China.
The retreat follows a heady period both for the industry and the billionaires, whose gains in wealth propelled them into the same league as tech and finance moguls like Elon Musk and Warren Buffett. In France, where Arnault, Bettencourt Meyers and Pinault all reside, the drop in their net worth also coincides with intensifying political pressure for higher taxes on the rich to combat inequality and help reduce the country’s yawning deficit.
Pinault, 88, who founded the company that has evolved into Kering, has seen his fortune take the hardest hit, falling 63 percent to $22 billion from a August 2021 high. That’s the largest percentage decline of anyone still on Bloomberg’s wealth index over that period and is largely due to troubles at its biggest fashion label, Gucci.
“We are implementing a radical transformation at Gucci” in a suboptimal environment, Kering chief financial officer Armelle Poulou said on an earnings call this week, during which she announced store closures. “This affects the pace of our execution and it definitely adds to the pain we endure in the near-term.”
The elder Pinault passed control of the company to his son, Francois-Henri Pinault, 62, nearly two decades ago and has focused on his art collection, opening museums in Paris and Venice. Francois-Henri has pledged to turn around Gucci, but this week’s warning on sales was the third in 2024.
Since the start of the year, Arnault’s fortune has shrunk by about $26 billion, the most among the world’s 500 richest on Bloomberg’s ranking. He’s sunk to fifth position on the index from No. 1 as shares of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, the luxury conglomerate the 75-year-old Arnault founded and still controls, have tumbled 30 percent from a mid-2023 high.
Results were also disappointing at cosmetics giant L’Oréal, helping to wipe $19 billion off the fortune of Bettencourt Meyers this year, leaving her at $81 billion. The 71-year-old heiress was for many years the world’s wealthiest woman, a position now occupied by Alice Walton.
“The worse-than-expected turbulence was in North Asia, in the Chinese ecosystem, where markets turned even more negative, particularly in luxury,” L’Oréal chief executive officer Nicolas Hieronimus said on a call with analysts. The company’s business remained “pretty good” in Europe, North America and emerging markets despite the summer slowdown, but China was “very much lower than pre-Covid.”
By Tara Patel
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