Numbers
What the show said, with receipts
Every figure the hosts put on the record for LVMH, with its source and the date it was captured. LVMH does not file public audited statements, so these are the numbers on record.
Freshness
0
Current (≤6 mo)
0
Recent (≤18 mo)
7
Older
Freshness is measured from each figure’s capture date, not from the episode date. An older figure is not wrong; it is a figure that has had time to move.
Reported figures
Group revenue (FY2024)
2 yr~€85B
world's largest luxury group; ~3x Kering, ~5x Richemont
[LVMH 2024 annual report + Acquired episode LVMH] · as of 2024-12
Group operating margin
2 yr~25%
Fashion & Leather Goods division margin ~40%; the math of luxury
[LVMH 2024 annual report] · as of 2024-12
Maisons (brands) in portfolio
2 yr~75
across Fashion, Wines & Spirits, Perfumes & Cosmetics, Watches & Jewelry, Selective Retailing
[LVMH 2024 annual report] · as of 2024-12
- Ben:They own just an insane number of brands with 75 houses today that include Dior, Louis Vuitton, Moet, Hennessy, Veuve Clicquot, Dom Perignon, Tiffany. It's not just the brands, they've expanded into distribution with retail, like Sephora and all the duty free shops that you see at airports, and they have even recently expanded into travel with Cheval Blanc resorts.[Acquired LVMH, ch. Intro]
Tiffany & Co. acquisition price
6 yr$15.8B
completed January 2021; largest luxury acquisition in history; renegotiated down from $16.2B during COVID
[Acquired episode LVMH + 2021 LVMH press release] · as of 2021-01
Louis Vuitton brand revenue (est.)
2 yr~€22B
LVMH does not disclose by brand; analyst consensus puts LV alone larger than Hermès as a whole
[Bain Luxury Report 2024 + analyst estimates] · as of 2024-12
Arnault family voting rights
2 yr~64%
via cascade of family holdings (Christian Dior SE → Financière Agache → LVMH)
[LVMH 2024 reference document] · as of 2024-12
Bernard Arnault net worth peak
3 yr~$211B
briefly world's richest person, early 2024; cemented luxury as a tier-one wealth engine
[Forbes / Bloomberg 2024] · as of 2024-03
- Ben:This wide-sweeping Empire is owned and controlled by the now wealthiest man in the world, more than Bezos, Gates, or Elon Musk. Bernard Arnault. Fascinatingly, this richest man in the world wasn't the founder of any of these brands. This story has a dash of Buffett, a little bit of Steve Jobs, and some unbelievable deal-making stories about how Mr. Arnault turned $15 million of capital in 1985 into the over $200 billion fortune that it is today.[Acquired LVMH, ch. Intro]
- The Taste of Luxury — an out-of-print French book from the 90s that chronicles, in real time, the story of Bernard Arnault taking over LVMH. Bought used for ~$400.[The Taste of Luxury (out-of-print, 1990s)]