(April 23): Billionaire Bernard Arnault’s five children were all given a chance to say something at LVMH’s annual general meeting as the question of succession finds itself increasingly on investors’ minds.
For the first time in the company’s history, each of his offspring — who all have relatively important roles at the world’s largest luxury group — spoke at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE’s AGM on Thursday.
The attempt to elevate their profiles was seen to reflect Arnault’s desire to put his children in front of shareholders rather than loyal non-family executives like Pietro Beccari, who heads Louis Vuitton and other fashion brands. But Arnault warned against reading too much into it.
“It’s because I have a very good relationship with my shareholders and my shareholders are kept in the loop regarding the activities of each of them, who are all very focused on a particular domain, and who are, as you may have noticed, all very brilliant in their domain,” he said on the sidelines of the event.
Jean Arnault, 27, the youngest, who looks after the watch category at LVMH’s biggest label Louis Vuitton, was the first among the siblings to speak.
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Jean Arnault, 27, the youngest, looks after the watch category at LVMH’s biggest label Louis Vuitton.
His brief speech was followed by Frederic Arnault, 31, who heads Loro Piana, LVMH’s exclusive cashmere ready-to-wear label that’s still growing at a double-digit pace even as the industry goes through a downturn. He was followed by Alexandre Arnault, 33, who’s the No 2 executive at LVMH’s wines and spirits unit, and touted the potential of Africa for its struggling Hennessy cognac label.
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Frederic Arnault, 31, heads Loro Piana, LVMH’s exclusive cashmere ready-to-wear label.
Then, Delphine, 51, Arnault’s only daughter, spoke about her position as the CEO of Christian Dior Couture, LVMH’s second-biggest fashion brand, and her role in spotting emerging designers. Finally, Antoine Arnault, 48, presented the group’s environmental achievements last year as of head of image and sustainability for LVMH.
Their speeches prompted Charles-Edouard Luquet, who’s been an LVMH shareholder since 1998, to ask Arnault, 77, how he saw his succession plan develop with the five children likely vying for the top role after him. Luquet said the market is worried about the succession issue, which has weighed on the company’s shares — down about 27% since the start of the year amid the luxury-industry downturn — even though he himself sees it as an overreaction.
Arnault dodged the question, saying shareholders had previously approved lifting the age cap on the chief executive officer role he holds to 85.
Delphine Arnault, 51, spoke about her position as the CEO of Christian Dior Couture, LVMH’s second-biggest fashion brand, and her role in spotting emerging designers.
“We’ll talk about this again in seven or eight years,” he said.
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Although Arnault said the outlook for 2026 was “quite unpredictable” amid the crisis in the Middle East, even the conflict didn’t dent his confidence in the company and how it’s run.
Antoine Arnault presented the group’s environmental achievements last year as of head of image and sustainability for LVMH.
“In the short term, the world is in a serious crisis in the Middle East,” Arnault told investors, but said if the conflict persists, LVMH would gain market share as it has in previous crises.
“We have formidable assets to remain on top,” he said, pointing to the group’s brands including Louis Vuitton, Dior and the US jewellery label Tiffany & Co which has a goal of becoming the sector’s leader in five years, which would require it to pull ahead of Richemont’s Cartier.
Arnault is the world’s ninth richest person, with a net worth of about US$160 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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