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In 2025, Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, the world's leading luxury goods company, topped the Forbes ranking of leading French billionaires. The second billionaire of France was Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, with a wealth of nearly ** billion euros.

Record profits for CAC40 companies

In the first semester of 2022, the companies in the CAC40, the main index of the Paris stock exchange, had accumulated nearly ** billion euros in profit, which represents ** percent more than in the first half of 2021, and ** percent more than the first half of 2019. The companies with the largest profits in 2021 were Vivendi, with nearly ** billion euros, TotalEnergie (**** billion euros), and ArcelorMittal (**** billion euros).
By the first half of 2022, CAC40 companies had also seen their revenues increase by an average of ** percent compared to the 2015-2019 period. For some companies, such as Stellantis, Essilor, or Worldline, this increase was even higher than *** percent.
The main beneficiaries of these companies' dividends were the Arnault group, BlackRock, and the French State. 

Taxation and tax havens

According to the Multinationals Observatory, the effective tax rate of the CAC40 has decreased between 2020 and 2021, from percent to percent. In other words, while the cumulative pre-tax profit of the CAC40 has tripled year on year, the tax paid has only doubled. The fair contribution of multinationals is a matter of debate in France, and in particular, the question of tax havens. The presence of large French groups in these jurisdictions with particularly low tax rates, or offering other advantageous conditions, although not necessarily providing evidence of illegal tax evasion, is an interesting indicator.
In 2022, **** percent of CAC40 subsidiaries were located in tax havens. The energy company Engie had the most subsidiaries in these jurisdictions (***), followed by LVMH (***). However, Bernard Arnault's company had the largest proportion of subsidiaries registered in tax havens (almost a quarter).