ILLUSTRATION. Bernard Arnault sells all of his shares in Carrefour
Source: Forbes | Editor: The novice Laoli
KONTAN.CO.ID – JAKARTA. French luxury goods billionaire Bernard Arnault and the world’s third-richest person today sold all of his remaining stake in French supermarket chain Carrefour on Tuesday this week.
The sale of shares marks Arnault’s departure from Carrefour after 14 years of investing in the company in 2007.
Arnault’s parent company, Financière Agache, sold its 5.5% stake in Carrefour at US$ 19 per share. Arnault received cash of US $ 850 million before taxes from the sale.
Arnault’s investment in Carrefour was not a profitable investment. From March 2007 to January 2017, Carrefour’s shares fell nearly 60%. And since 2017 until now, Carrefour’s shares have fallen by more than 26%.
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In 2019, Arnault stepped down from Carrefour’s board and passed the seat over to his son, Alexandre. Then in September 2020, Arnault began selling his Carrefour shares. At that time, Arnault sold 25 million shares worth nearly US$ 410 million, bringing his ownership down to 5.5 percent from the previous 8.6 percent.
The sale comes eight months after Carrefour scrapped a planned $20 billion sale to Canadian retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard, the company founded by fellow billionaires Alain Bouchard, Jacques D’Amours and Richard Fortin because the French government opposed the deal.
The sale of a stake in Carrefour marks a rare investment loss for Arnault, whose net worth has increased sixfold since 2012 when it added $29 billion.
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Much of that dramatic wealth growth has occurred since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, thanks to skyrocketing shares of conglomerate LVMH, of which Arnault owns 47%.
The increase also makes Arnault the world’s richest person for six weeks in 2021 with a net worth of US$201 billion in August 2021. That’s an increase of nearly 165% from his previous fortune of US$76 billion in March 2020.
