{"id":214028,"date":"2026-09-04T00:08:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T00:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/214028\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T00:08:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T00:08:57","slug":"bernard-arnault-reclaims-the-top-spot-in-frances-ranking-of-business-fortunes-according-to-challenges-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/214028\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernard Arnault reclaims the top spot in France\u2019s ranking of business fortunes, according to Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n By
\n
AFP\n <\/p>\n

\n Published
\n <\/p>\n

July 8, 2026<\/p>\n

\n Bernard Arnault<\/a> and his family, who control the luxury-goods giant LVMH<\/a>, have reclaimed top spot in Challenges magazine\u2019s annual ranking of France\u2019s biggest business fortunes, published on Wednesday- a position they ceded last year to the Herm\u00e8s<\/a> heirs.<\/p>\n

\"BernardBernard Arnault – Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Once the world\u2019s richest person- now far behind Elon Musk- he and his family have an estimated fortune of 121.2 billion euros. In early 2025, Herm\u00e8s, which had better withstood the slowdown in the global luxury market, briefly became France\u2019s largest company by market capitalisation, overtaking LVMH.<\/p>\n

LVMH\u2019s share price has since rebounded. The luxury group, of which the Arnault family owns more than half, is once again worth around 250 billion euros on the stock market. The Herm\u00e8s heirs have therefore slipped to second place in Challenges\u2019 ranking of France\u2019s biggest business fortunes, with an estimated fortune of 114 billion euros.<\/p>\n

The magazine counted 153 billionaire families in France this year, eight more than in 2025. According to Challenges, the combined wealth of France\u2019s 500 largest fortunes is 1,076 billion euros this year, down from 1,129 billion euros in 2025.<\/p>\n

The Challenges ranking is based on company shareholdings and equity stakes, the value of which is either taken from market prices or estimated for unlisted securities. This ranking does not take personal assets, such as property, into account.<\/p>\n

The rest of the list has changed little: brothers Alain and G\u00e9rard Wertheimer of Chanel<\/a> hold on to third place at 95 billion euros, ahead of L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s Fran\u00e7oise Bettencourt Meyers at 69.7 billion euros.<\/p>\n

Rodolphe Saad\u00e9, owner of the shipping group CMA CGM, whose profitability has been hit by the conflict in the Middle East, has a business fortune estimated at 31.5 billion euros, down from 35 billion euros in 2025.<\/p>\n

Next<\/a> come Xavier Niel of Free at 30.1 billion euros, the Dassault family at 27.7 billion euros, G\u00e9rard Mulliez<\/a> with Auchan<\/a> and Decathlon<\/a> at 27 billion euros, Fran\u00e7ois Pinault<\/a> of Kering<\/a> at 19.2 billion euros, and Emmanuel Besnier with Lactalis at 14.2 billion euros.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2025, Bernard Arnault became the sole owner of Challenges after buying Claude Perdriel\u2019s stake (the 282nd-richest person in France). This change of ownership prompted the departure of journalists.\n <\/p>\n

\n Copyright \u00a9 2026 AFP. All rights reserved. All information displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By AFP Published July 8, 2026 Bernard Arnault and his family, who control the luxury-goods giant LVMH, have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[163],"tags":[85419,31831,762,6010,85420,2453,21420,3479,5285,8148,68107,768,769,85421,9090,10563,61176],"class_list":["post-214028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bernard-arnault","tag-auchan","tag-beauty","tag-bernard-arnault","tag-chanel","tag-decathlon","tag-fashion","tag-francois-pinault","tag-hermes","tag-kering","tag-loreal","tag-liliane-bettencourt","tag-luxury","tag-lvmh","tag-mulliez","tag-network","tag-next","tag-professionals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117209868930419076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}