The billionaire defended the fiscal and social impact of his group, LVMH, which is breaking sales and capitalization records.
Bernard Arnault does not listen to criticism. The first world fortune responded Thursday to its detractors, judging that “people did not know the economy well” and opposed them to the economic and social footprint of the group in France.
I note with a little surprise – although in France, you should never be surprised – that people do not know the economy well, so we are criticized by people who do not know the subject they are talking about “, he said during the presentation of the group’s annual results.
LVMH has once again broken records, reaching 79 billion euros in sales and 14 billion in net profit. The 73-year-old billionaire, who has become the world’s largest fortune ahead of Elon Musk, boss of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, according to the Forbes ranking, is for his part regularly the target of criticism from politicians or associations. On the occasion of the Davos Forum in mid-January, Oxfam had notably campaigned to “abolish” billionaires, symbols according to the NGO of economic inequalities.
160,000 people employed indirectly
“This magnificent group which has spectacular results is also a group which has an economic and social footprint for France”, said Bernard Arnault. In 2022, “in France, we recruited more than 15,000 people, which makes the group the leading recruiter in France”, underlined the CEO of the world’s number one luxury goods company which globally hired 40,000 people in 2022.
“A job created at LVMH generates four jobs at our suppliers, which means that we are training 160,000 people who work indirectly for LVMH,” he added.
Bernard Arnault also listed the 5 billion euros of investment committed to renovating workshops or creating them in France, stressing that “more than 500 shops and 100 artisanal production sites were established in French territories”.
“The group pays 5 billion in corporate taxes per year worldwide, almost half of which in France while nearly 90% of our productions are sold abroad”, he added.
For France, “the total tax footprint, that is to say the combination of corporate tax, VAT and social charges for LVMH, is more than 4.5 billion euros per year”, a he said. LVMH exceeded the threshold of 400 billion euros in market capitalization in January, a first for a European company.