From Spear's Magazine, April 3:
The world's richest man bestrides his LVMH empire like a colossus. But as he turns 75, Bernard Arnault faces a dilemma: which of his five children should succeed him?
In a few months’ time, half a million spectators will cheer a flotilla of barges carrying 10,000 Olympic athletes along the River Seine to the Eiffel Tower. There they will meet the beau monde of global sporting leaders, politicians and dignitaries, including the richest man in Europe, with a net worth estimated by Forbes to be around €200 billion. Few of the superhuman twentysomethings at the opening ceremony of the Olympics and the Paralympic games will recognise, Bernard Arnault, but they will all be aware of at least some part of the empire he has stitched together to create the world’s largest luxury goods group, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.
He prefers to let his brands – 75 of them, including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Tiffany and Fendi – do the talking, and the greatest sporting occasion in the world is no exception to that rule. One, Chaumet, a Paris jeweller, has designed the Olympic medals. Another, Berluti, is dressing the French team from head to toe. VIP guests will sip champagne from Dom Pérignon, which he also owns.
What a golden moment for him. After spending a lifetime creating Europe’s most valuable company – with a market capitalisation exceeding €400 billion – he will be at the heart of the French establishment and in the global spotlight. (The price of admission to Europe’s party of the decade? A premium sponsorship cheque rumoured to be €150 million.)
It will be a family affair. Arnault will be surrounded by his five children: Delphine, 49, and Antoine, 46, from his first marriage to Anne Dewavrin, and Alexandre, 31, Frédéric, 28, and Jean, 26, a trio he had with his current wife, Canadian-born concert pianist Hélène Mercier. Each man will wear an almost identical Dior navy suit. Delphine will wear a Dior skirt. It has become the family uniform.
There will be no unseemly jockeying for a podium place with the patriarch, but luxury industry analysts will study the group for body language that might indicate Arnault’s choice of successor. Change is afoot in the first family of fashion and le Tout-Paris wants to know who’s up and who’s down in the family’s game of gilded thrones....
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