Richer Than Elon Musk, He Bought Tiffany at a Tough Time. He’s Got a Gem Now.

There’s a reason Bernard Arnault is the world’s richest person. The chairman, CEO, and controlling shareholder of


LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton


the world’s largest luxury-goods merchant, knows how to buy companies and integrate them. He’s a shrewd negotiator, too.

On LVMH’s recent earnings call, Arnault crowed over his company’s 2021 purchase of Tiffany, saying that Tiffany’s earnings had doubled since the deal. Tiffany, for the first time, will have more than one billion euros [$1.08 billion] in profits, he said, adding: “We were barely at half that when we acquired the business. Everyone said to me, ‘Why are you buying this business at that price; it’s far too much.’ But, I mean, it wasn’t perhaps managed in the most dynamic way. I won’t dwell on that….but if it were listed today, [it would] probably [be] worth twice as much.”