Wealth growth rate of French billionaires since the start of the pandemic 2020-2022

Between 2020 and 2022, Rodolphe Saadé, CEO of the CMA CGM group, world leader in transport and logistics, experienced a more than fivefold increase in wealth, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the energy crisis. In second and third place in the ranking of the most important wealth growth, Carrie Perrodo, owner of the oil company Perenco (+ 141.18 percent), followed by Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH (+108.87 percent).

Record wealth growth for French billionaires

In 2021, there were 954 billionaires in Europe, among which 68 in France, and 50 in the capital. In 2022, the richest man in the world, Bernard Arnault, whose fortune grew from 85.7 billion euros in 2020 to nearly 180 billion euros in 2022, surpassing that of Elon Musk, was French. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the luxury magnate, whose group LVMH includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Givenchi, and Dior, could spend a dollar a second (without increasing his wealth, and in the absence of inflation or deflation) that his fortune would still last him more than five millennia.
The wealthiest woman in the world was also French: during the same two years, the fortune of Françoise Bettencourt Meyers rose from 55.2 billion euros to nearly 73 billion euros (+32 percent). Moreover, in 2021, the top five French family-owned groups listed on the CAC40 received around five billion euros in dividends, and almost half of these profits went to the Arnault family.

CAC40 companies' CEOs seem unaffected by crises

The annual remuneration of CAC40 CEOs has reached new heights in 2021. Indeed, while inflation and prices are rising, affecting the most modest households, the average annual remuneration of the CEOs of CAC40 companies has increased by more than two million euros between 2020 and 2021, reaching 6.6 million euros. The best paid CAC40 CEOs that year were those of Dassault Système (44.1 million euros), Téléperformance (19.6 million euros), and Stellantis (19.2 million euros). Conversely, heads of groups in which the French government is a shareholder (Safran, Thalès, Orange) were those whose remuneration was the lowest, although at quite comfortable levels, ranging from two to three million euros per year.

A growing gap with employee compensation

While CAC40 companies experienced historic profits in 2021 and 2022, spending per employee remains low in many groups, and the ratio between average CEO pay and average spending per employee is increasing. Indeed, in 2021, CEO pay was on average 139 times that of an employee, compared to 115 in 2020, and 108 in 2018. In other words, an employee had to work an average of 139 days to earn what their CEO earned in one day. The groups with the lowest spending per employee were Stellantis, Dassault Systemes, and especially Teleperformance: an employee at this company had to work an average of five years to make their CEO's daily salary.