‘People don’t know economics well’: Bernard Arnault brushes aside criticism of billionaires

“People don’t know economics very well. » LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault (owner of Parisien-Aujourd’hui in France) brushed aside criticism leveled at him as a world-first fortune, pitting his detractors against the economic and social influence of a luxury group of companies in France.

“I will note with a little surprise – although in France this should never be surprising – that people are bad at economics, so we are criticized by people who are bad at the subject,” Bernard Arnault said during the presentation. annual results of the group, which again broke records, reaching 79 billion euros in sales and 14 billion in net profit.

The 73-year-old billionaire, who, along with his family, has become a world leader in fortune, ahead of Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, according to Forbes, is regularly the target of criticism from politicians or associations. On the occasion of the Davos Forum in mid-January, Oxfam campaigned, among other things, for the “elimination” of billionaires, symbols of economic inequality, according to NGOs.

“This magnificent group, which has achieved impressive results, also has a great economic and social impact on France,” said Bernard Arnault. In 2022, “we hired over 15,000 people in France, making the group the top recruiter in France,” said the CEO of the world’s number one luxury goods company, which hired 40,000 people worldwide in 2022.

“Group pays 5 billion corporate taxes”

“One job created at LVMH creates four jobs at our suppliers, which means we train 160,000 people who work indirectly at LVMH,” he added. Bernard Arnault also listed 5 billion euros of investments aimed at refurbishing workshops or setting them up in France, stressing that “more than 500 shops and 100 craft production sites have been established in French territories.”

“The Group pays 5 billion in corporate taxes worldwide every year, almost half of which is in France, and almost 90% of our products are sold abroad,” he added. For France, “the total tax footprint, which is the combination of corporate tax, VAT and social security contributions for LVMH, is over 4.5 billion euros per year,” he said.

LVMH passed the €400 billion market capitalization threshold in January, a first for a European company.