- Bernard Arnault is set to appoint two more of his š¤š©šŖšš„ren to the LVMH’s board, reports say.
- He’s expected to nominate Alexandre, a VP at Tiffany, and FrĆ©dĆ©ric, head of LVMH’s watches division.
- Arnault’s five š¤š©šŖšš„ren all have prestigious roles at LVMH, and two are already on the board.
Bernard Arnault, the world’s third-richest person, is set to appoint two more of his š¤š©šŖšš„ren to LVMH’s board, France’sĀ La LettreĀ first reported. The story was also reported by outlets includingĀ BloombergĀ andĀ The Financial Times.
The French billionaire plans to propose his sons Alexandre Arnault, 31, and FrĆ©dĆ©ric Arnault, 29, as board members, the reports say, quoting unnamed sources. Their appointments would need to be approved by shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in April, but that is largely a formality.
Four of Arnault’s five š¤š©šŖšš„ren will sit on the LVMHĀ boardĀ if their appointments are confirmed.
Delphine, Bernard’s oldest š¤š©šŖšš„ and only daughter, has been on the boardĀ since 2003, while eldest son Antoine has been a director since 2006.
The moves will spark renewed speculation about which of Arnault’s š¤š©šŖšš„ren might one day take over running LVMH. It’s valued at about 335 billion euros ($363 billion), making it Europe’s second most valuable company after Novo Nordisk, the Danish maker of Ozempic.
Arnault hasn’t commented publicly about a possible successor. In 2022, LVMH raised the age limit for its CEOĀ from 75 to 80, extending Bernard’s possible tenure. He turns 75 in March.
LVMH is the world’s biggest luxury conglomerate and its dozens of brands include Louis Vuitton, Dior, Marc Jacobs, MoĆ«t & Chandon, Fenty Beauty, and Tiffany & Co.
The company has more than 5,600 stores and had revenues of aboutĀ $86 billionĀ in 2022.
LVMH didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the board appointments.
Alexandre becameĀ executive vice-president for product and communications at Tiffany & CoĀ aged just 28 after LVMH bought the jewelry maker for $15.8 billion in 2020.
He also spent about four years as CEO ofĀ RimowaĀ afterĀ reportedlyĀ persuading his father to buy an 80% stake in the upmarket German luggage brand in 2016.
“I was obviously raised to be in the group,” Alexandre toldĀ The New York TimesĀ in 2018. Former President Donald TrumpĀ said in FebruaryĀ that he’d hosted Alexandre and his wife for dinner at Mar-a-Lago and called him “a young man on the move.”
FrĆ©dĆ©ric was appointed head to a new role running LVMH’s watches divisionĀ in January. He was previously CEO of Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer, a role he’d held since 2020 when he was just 25.
Delphie is CEO of Christian Dior Couture, Antoine is CEO of Christian Dior SE, theĀ holding companyĀ the family uses to control LVMH, and Jean, the youngest of Bernard’s sons, at 25, leads Louis Vuitton’s watches division.
Arnault cofounded LVMH in the 1980s and is its CEO and chairman.
In May 2023, he became theĀ third person to be worth more than $200 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Arnault is worth an estimatedĀ $162 billion,Ā mostly from his stake in LVMH, putting him third after Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who are worth $217 billion and $180 billion respectively, per Bloomberg.
