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French billionaire Bernard Arnault has appointed his son Frédéric as head of one of many household holding corporations controlling LVMH, the newest in a sequence of promotions for the 29-year-old scion inside the world’s largest luxurious group.
The fourth of Arnault’s 5 kids, Frédéric will change Nicolas Bazire as managing director of Financière Agache, the corporate stated on Thursday. The Arnault household owns 48 per cent of LVMH’s capital and 64 per cent of its voting rights. The Paris-listed group owns manufacturers together with Louis Vuitton, Dior and US jeweller Tiffany.
A graduate of high engineering college Ecole Polytechnique like his father, Frédéric was lately named chief govt of LVMH Watches, after a stint as chief govt of Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer. He and his 32-year-old brother Alexandre have been appointed to the LVMH board in April, becoming a member of older siblings Delphine and Antoine. Shares rose 1.34 per cent on Thursday, giving LVMH a market worth of €381.46bn.
All adjustments within the roles of the 5 Arnault kids, who all have roles inside the LVMH, are scrutinised for indicators of who would possibly someday succeed the group’s 75-year-old patriarch.
Bernard Arnault has insisted that he has no intention of stepping again any time quickly nevertheless, and the group two years in the past elevated the age restrict for the chief govt position at LVMH to 80. However the French billionaire is rigorously laying the groundwork for succession on the firm by inserting his kids in key positions — a course of that has elevated in tempo for the reason that begin of 2023. He lately reshuffled his high exterior managers in an effort to arrange a generational handoff amongst senior executives that work alongside the household.
Delphine Arnault, 49, was appointed chief govt of Dior — the group’s second-biggest model by gross sales after Louis Vuitton — at first of 2023, and sits on LVMH’s govt committee.
Antoine, 46, is in command of picture and sustainability on the group, and was additionally named chief govt of Christian Dior SE — one other household holding firm above LVMH — on the finish of 2022.
Alexandre is a senior govt at jeweller Tiffany & Co, which LVMH acquired for about $16bn in 2020. Jean, 25, runs watchmaking at Louis Vuitton.
Exterior the household, the group’s managing director Antonio Belloni, 69, stepped down after 23 years as Bernard Arnault’s proper hand in April, changed by Stéphane Bianchi, previously LVMH’s head of watches and jewelry, who’s a veteran of household succession at French cosmetics group Yves Rocher.