Bernard Arnault did not found LVMH, he won it in a boardroom feud
Bernard Arnault is so closely tied to LVMH that many assume he founded it. He did not. The luxury giant was formed in 1987 by merging Louis Vuitton with the drinks group Moët Hennessy, and its leaders quickly fell out. One invited Arnault to invest, and he soon took control from the founding families.
The ingredients were already old. Moët & Chandon had been making champagne since 1743 and Hennessy cognac since 1765; the two merged in 1971. Louis Vuitton dated from 1854. After the 1987 union, Alain Chevalier of Moët Hennessy and Henry Racamier of Louis Vuitton clashed over the group's future. Racamier brought in Arnault as an ally, and by January 1989 Arnault was chairman and chief executive, a post he still holds.
Under him the group became a collector of brands, around 75 of them run through some 60 subsidiaries. It bought a controlling stake in the jeweller Bulgari in 2011 and absorbed the entire Christian Dior brand in 2017. It even owns Château d'Yquem, a wine estate with roots in 1593, alongside names such as Fendi, Givenchy, TAG Heuer and Sephora. In 2019 it launched Fenty with the singer Rihanna, its first new fashion house in 32 years and the first led by a woman of colour.
The Tiffany deal showed its hard edge. LVMH agreed in 2019 to buy the American jeweller for about 16.2 billion dollars, then tried to walk away during the pandemic, complaining that Tiffany was losing money while still paying dividends. After lawsuits flew both ways, the two settled on a slightly lower price, and the purchase closed in January 2021.
Its value rose from about 317.6 billion dollars in late 2020 to become the first European company worth 500 billion dollars, in April 2023. Growth has cooled since: revenue barely grew in 2024, and profits fell 22 percent in the first half of 2025 as the luxury market wobbled.
Source: LVMH
