Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH, has been top of the “Challenges” rankings of the wealthiest people in France since 2009. But in 2016 he ceded that place to Liliane Bettencourt, the daughter of the founder of cosmetics multinational L’Oreal, who boasts a personal fortune of over 31 billion euros (26 billion in 2014), while the house of Arnault’s wealth has fallen from 34 to 30.3 billion euros. “It’s due to the stock exchange, where the LVMH group has lost 12%,” the Challenges analysts explain. If you skim down the list of the top ten wealthiest people in France, you’ll find several illustrious names from the world of fashion: in fourth place is Axel Dumas from Hermès (22.3 billion), while Chanel co-owners, Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, are in sixth place (16.5 billion) and François Pinault, founder of the Kering group is in seventh place (11.3 billion).
France’s Uncle Scrooges: Bernard Arnault (LVMH) loses 4 billion euros and his place at the top
