Bernard Arnault hints at leading LVMH until age 85

[PARIS] Bernard Arnault, the 76-year-old billionaire founder of LVMH, signalled he could helm the luxury group for the best part of another decade.

LVMH said in a filing that it will seek to raise the age limit for the chief executive officer and chairman to 85 from the current 80 at next month’s annual general meeting. The age limit was last raised in 2022.

A series of management reshuffles had fuelled speculation that Arnault, who has five children, was preparing his succession plans – especially as all of them now have key positions in the conglomerate.

A November re-jig included the return of Alexandre Arnault to LVMH’s Paris headquarters, from Tiffany in New York. The company said on Wednesday (Mar 12) Frederic Arnault, managing director of Financiere Agache – one of the holding companies through which the family controls its stake in LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton – will lead Italian cashmere brand Loro Piana from June.

Still, the filing suggests Arnault is not thinking about imminent retirement from the company he’s led since 1989. His wealth is estimated at about US$179 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him Europe’s wealthiest person.

As with rivals, some of LVMH’s key brands have struggled amid a wider luxury slowdown as consumers reined in spending after a post-pandemic boom.

Arnault is prominent in French political circles, and is regularly invited to the Elysee Palace when heads of state come to Paris.

But he triggered controversy when having attended Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, he said there was a wind of optimism running through the US – in contrast to his native France.

Arnault and Trump have known each other since the French entrepreneur first came to New York in the early 1980s, fleeing a socialist government in France and seeking to start a real estate business, an endeavor that was not successful. BLOOMBERG