French billionaire Bernard Arnault's fortune has fallen this year by the most of any member of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The reason is the weakening demand for luxury goods.
The founder of the LVMH conglomerate saw his fortune drop by $20 billion in the period, reaching $187 billion, the ranking of the 500 richest people shows. After the company's shares were hit hard by disappointing quarterly results this week, Arnault's losses eclipsed the $18 billion of China's richest man, Jun Shanshan.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the world's richest man, saw his biggest one-day drop in wealth, although it was still up 5% for the year. On Wednesday, the Tesla boss' fortune fell by $21.7 billion after the electric car maker also posted disappointing quarterly results. The company's shares fell 12%, the most in almost four years.
The one-day decline was the fifth-largest market-driven decline in the 12-year history of the Bloomberg index. With it, Musk's wealth reaches 240.5 billion dollars, but even then he remains about 37 billion dollars ahead of the second Jeff Bezos.
For his part, 75-year-old Arnaud drops to third place from first, which he held only a month ago.
Jun Shanshan, on the other hand, is in danger of losing the top spot in his home country - which he has held for nearly three years - due to increasing competition and PR challenges for his bottled water company Nongfu Spring Co.
Arnaud's decline is rooted in economic weakness in China, a market the luxury industry has long relied on. LVMH's sales in the region, which includes China, fell 14% in the latest quarter, a disappointment for a group that has been among the most resilient, at least until now.
French rival Kering, founded by François Pinault, also warned that profit would fall in the second half of the year.