Hurun Report released Tycoons of Luxury 2013, a report identifying the dollar billionaires around the world whose main source of wealth is from the luxury sector.
Louis Vuitton's Bernard Arnault heads the list with a personal fortune of US$51 billion according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2013, followed by Liliane Bettencourt of L'Oreal.
Paris is home to more luxury billionaires on list than any other city, with seven residing in the French capital.
Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, said, "The Chinese luxury consumer is today the most important customer group in the world for luxury brands, especially now that the Chinese luxury consumer has started to travel around the world."
Anas Rahman Junaid of GyanMagnus Associates, research partner of the Hurun Global Rich List, said: "Europe has traditionally been (and still is) the preferred residence of the luxury designers."
Luxury Tycoons 2013
Source: Hurun Global Rich List 2013. For the full list of 1453 dollar billionaires, refer to
www.hurun.net/usen/Default.aspx Tycoons of Luxury – some notesBernard ArnaultThe Luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton was acquired by the French business magnate Bernard Arnault in 1988. Arnault, who owns nearly 47% of LVMH, saw sales at the group record Euro 19.9 billion for the first nine months of 2012, an increase of 22% on the comparable period in 2011. Married twice and a father of 5 children, Arnault was a witness at former French President Nicholas Sarkozy's first wedding to Cecillia Ciganer-Albeniz. Arnault has recently courted controversy by applying for Belgian nationality to escape the high taxes in France. Louis Vuitton is the preferred brand for gifting by Chinese millionaires, according to the Hurun Chinese Luxury Consumer Survey 2013.
Liliane BettencourtL'Oreal Heiress Liliane Bettencourt is the only child of L'Oreal's founder Eugene Schueller (1881-1957) who inherited the L'Oreal fortune in 1957. She has an estimated net worth of US$30 billion making her the World's Richest Woman. L'Oreal, the world's largest cosmetics maker reported a 12% gain in 2012 earnings. L'Oreal rose as much as 5.6 % in Paris trading, the steepest intraday gain since August 2010 reporting a 5.6 billion euro sales in the first quarter of 2012.
Bertrand PuechGrandson of Emile Hermès, Bertrand Puech is the president of Hermès International. He inherited the company in 1997. Consolidated revenue in the first half of 2012 totalled 1.6 billion Euros, an increase of 21.9% from the previous year.
Wolfgang Porsche Youngest son of Ferry Porsche he is the chairman of Porsche Automobile Holding SE and Volkswagen AG. In the first half of 2012, operating profit rose by about a fifth to 1.3 billion Euros as sales of models such as the 911 sports car and the Cayenne SUV grew 22.5% to 68,940 vehicles.
Leonardo Del Vecchio Founder and Chairman of Luxottica, he is the second richest man in Italy. 2012 net sales of Luxottica exceeded Euro 7 billion, the highest net sales results recorded in Luxottica's history.
Francois PinaultPPR was founded in 1963 by Pinault and is now run by his son Francois Henri Pinault. The house of Gucci better known as simply Gucci is an Italian fashion and leather goods brand, part of the Gucci Group which is owned by PPR. Revenue for the first half of 2012 amounted to Euro 6.4 billion.
Klatten Born Susanne Quandt, she is the richest woman in Germany and owns a 11.6% stake in the German automobile manufacturing company BMW. The company sold a total of 185,728 vehicles in the month of March, a record sale in the company's history.
Stefan QuandtSon of late Herbert Quandt, Stefan Quandt owns a 16.1% stake in the German automaker BMW. Quandt sits on the supervisory board along with billionaire sister Susanne Klatten.
Herbert QuandtGerman widow of industrialist Herbert Quandt, who resurrected BMW from bankruptcy, she still holds a 15.1% stake in the company post her retirement. She now leads a quiet life in Bad Homburg, Germany and supports child-cancer institutes.
Alain and Gerard WertheimerFrench businessmen, who own and control the House of Chanel, co-founded by their grandfather Pierre. The Wertheimer brothers own French vineyards like Rauzan-Segla in Margaux and Château Canon in Saint-Emilion. Chanel targets US$3 billion in sales revenue per year.
Miuccia Prada & Patrizio BertelliMiuccia Prada is an Italian fashion designer and entrepreneur. The youngest granddaughter of Mario Prada, founder of the luxury label Prada, she took over the family-owned luxury goods manufacturer in 1978 with billionaire husband, Patrizio Bertelli. Prada Group's net revenues for 2012 amounted to Euro 3.3 billion, a 29% increase from previous year. She is a collector of contemporary art and owns several artworks.
Giorgio ArmaniThe Italian fashion designer particularly noted for his menswear, found his company Armani in 1975. He became the first designer to ban models with a body mass index under 18. He was also the first designer to broadcast a Haute Couture fashion show live on the internet in 2007. Armani reported revenue of Euro 1.8 billion last year.
Leonard Lauder American businessman and chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Estée lauder reported a revenue increase of 12% from the previous year (revenue being US$2.3 billion).
Nicky Oppenheimer A South African businessman, he is the Chairman of the De Beers diamond mining company whose sales jumped 26% to US$7.4 billion. De Beers is currently 45% held by the Oppenheimer family.
Ferdinand Piech Owning a 10% stake in Porsche, Ferdinand Piech is an Austrian business magnate, engineer and executive who is currently the chairman of the supervisory board of Volkswagen Group. A dyslexic, he is reportedly known to have married four times and has 12 children.
Beny Steinmetz Inherited the Geneva based Diamond group from his father. With his wife, Steinmetz oversees the Beny & Agnes Steinmetz Foundation, which donates to schools, hospitals, army units and the arts. Benny Steinmetz is the CEO of the Beny Steinmetz Resource Group and a prominent international businessman with activities in more than 25 countries.
Johann Rupert Johann Rupert is the founder and chairman of the Swiss based luxury goods company Richemont and holds a 9.97% shareholding in the company. Revenue for the company was reported to be Euro 8.9 billion. As of November 2012, Richemont is the sixth largest corporation by market capitalization on the Swiss market Index.
Isak AndicIsak Andic is the founder and principal shareholder of the Spanish fashion group, Mango. In 2012 Mango had 2500 stores across 109 countries having 11,000 direct employees of which 83% are women. Mango ended its 2011 fiscal year with revenues of 1.4 billion euros.
Ronald LauderYounger brother of billionaire Leonard Lauder, Ronald Lauder is non-executive chairman of Estée lauder which reported a revenue increase of 12% from the previous year (revenue being US$ 2.3 billion).
Michael YingMichael Ying was the ex-chairman of Esprit Holdings Limited and is married to Taiwanese former actress Lin Ching Hsia.
Eric GuerlainEric Guerlain, 67, who moved to Britain, is worth US$2.9 billion as a result of his family's stake in the French cosmetics company Christian Dior, where he is vice-chairman
Esther GretherEsther Grether has been on the Board of Directors of Swatch Group, the biggest maker of Swiss watches since 1986. Mrs Grether is Chairperson of the Board of the Doetsch Grether Group, Basel. She has headed this group for over 30 years. Gross revenues climbed 14% to CHF 8.1 billion in the year 2012.
Nicolas PuechNicolas Puech, is a direct descendant of legendary former Hermès leader Emile-Maurice Hermès and largest private shareholder of Hermès.
Markus LangesAn Austrian entrepreneur, Markus heads the fifth generation of family owned Swarovski since 2002.
Christina OngConsidered as Singapore's style icon, Christina Ong, 54 is one of the wealthiest women in the world. Club 21, is a luxury retail company established in 1972. With her billionaire husband Ong Beng Seng also owns interests in Hotel Properties and Luxury British handbag marker Mulberry.
Karl SheufeleKarl-Friedrich Scheufele is Co-President of Chopard and he is in charge of the Chopard Manufacture in Fleurier, Switzerland, the men's watches division. An enthusiastic wine connoisseur Karl Friedrich Scheufele, together with his wife Christine, acquired the Chateau Monestier La Tour in January 2012, a major wine estate in the region of Bergerac. At constant exchange rates Chopard recorded a 15% increase in sales.
Philippe SternGeneva's Stern family has owned and operated Patek Philippe & Company, one of the most prestigious watch companies in the world for 76 years. Currently the Chairman of the group, he is a member of the fourth generation of the family. In 1989, Patek created one of the most complicated mechanical watches ever made the Calibre 89, created for the 150th anniversary of the company
Reinold GeigerReinold Geiger leads one of the few companies in the world that not only make their products available to the blind and partially sighted by using Braille on their packaging, but are also committed to being socially responsible and environmentally friendly. Net sales for the six months increased 22% to €449.2 million as compared to the same period last year.
Laurence GraffAn English jeweller, Laurence Graff is best known as a supplier of unique jewellery and rare jewels to the wealth. In 2010 he set a record for the highest price ever paid for a jewel at auction, $46 million dollars, for a pink diamond
MethodologyThe Hurun Global Rich Listis a snapshot of wealth on 17 January 2013.
Valuing the wealth of China's richest is as much an art as it is a science. We have missed some people, but we believe the Hurun Global Rich List is the most serious attempt to identify the world's top entrepreneurs and to measure their holdings. Our team of researchers has traveled the length and breadth of the world's financial centres cross-checking information with business leaders, industry experts, journalists, bankers, and regulators, as well as previous years' databases. For non-listed companies our valuation was based on a comparison with their listed equivalents using prevailing industry Price/Earning ratios.
Hurun Report would like to thank Anas Rahman Junaid of GyanMagnus Associates, Hurun Report's chief global rich list research partner.
