LVMH poursuit sa razzia méthodique des talents de L'Oréal
En annonçant, cette semaine, l'arrivée de l'ancien président de Biotherm (L'Oréal) Giulio Bergamaschi à la direction d'une de ses maisons de parfum, Acqua di Parma, le groupe de Bernard Arnault étend un peu plus son tableau de chasse. Malgré un procès contestant le débauchage de Stéphane Rinderknech, LVMH continue de puiser allègrement dans le vivier de cadres du géant des cosmétiques.
Dans une note interne de nomination envoyée mardi 21 mars, LVMH a réussi l'exploit d'annoncer l'arrivée de Giulio Bergamaschi à la tête d'une de ses petites marques de parfums, Acqua di Parma, sans jamais mentionner dans sa biographie le nom de L'Oréal. Le nouvel arrivant y a pourtant réalisé l'intégralité de sa carrière, soit dix-huit ans, de 2004 à 2022 ! L'Oréal serait-il devenu un mot tabou chez LVMH ? Ou le géant du luxe finit-il par rougir à force de piller les cadres du leader mondial des cosmétiques ?
Le cas Rinderknech
Au moins, cette fois, le groupe de Bernard Arnault avait fait respecter la clause de non-concurrence de sa nouvelle recrue. Ce qui n'a pas été le cas pour le plus capé Stéphane Rinderknech. Comme révélé par La Lettre A en mai (LLA du 20/05/22), ce poids lourd de L'Oréal, passé par la direction de la Chine et des Etats-Unis, avait été placé début juin à la tête de la branche hôtelière, avec une place au comex de LVMH. Le groupe espérait ainsi le former discrètement avant de l'orienter vers la division beauté. Raté pour la discrétion.
L'Oréal avait rapidement intenté un double procès à LVMH ainsi qu'à son ancien cadre dirigeant, faisant notamment remarquer que les spas des hôtels relevaient d'une activité liée aux cosmétiques (LLA du 19/07/22). Les juges avaient ensuite donné raison en appel à LVMH avant un pourvoi en cassation de L'Oréal, qui reste à venir (LLA du 16/01/23). Ce qui n'a pas empêché les équipes ressources humaines de LVMH de s'empresser de communiquer le 6 mars dernier sur la nomination de Stéphane Rinderknech comme PDG de la division beauté, à peine son année de clause écoulée fin février.
Les "ex" sont partout
Le cas Rinderknech a fait du bruit. Mais ce n'est qu'un des arbres qui cache la forêt, tant les équipes de la DRH de LVMH, Chantal Gaemperle, pêchent sans modération dans le vivier L'Oréal. Cette semaine par exemple, Bernard Arnault fait la tournée de ses maisons en Asie, accompagné de sa fille Delphine Arnault, nouvelle PDG de Christian Dior, et rejoint par son fils Alexandre Arnault, chargé du marketing de Tiffany & Co. En Corée du Sud, ce lundi 20 mars, le big boss a notamment été accueilli par le patron des Parfums Christian Dior Corée, Nicolas Bernard-Bouissières, formé pendant quatorze ans chez L'Oréal - même si son profil sur LinkedIn ne mentionne étrangement que huit ans - avant de rejoindre la branche parfums de LVMH.
En relisant attentivement le communiqué annonçant les nouvelles prérogatives de Stéphane Rinderknech, on constate d'ailleurs qu'il chapeaute l'intégralité des marques de beauté, sauf Louis Vuitton. Normal, c'est un autre ex-l'Oréalien, Yann Musquin, officiellement patron des parfums Dior, qui selon les informations de La Lettre A travaille discrètement sur le déploiement de la marque phare du groupe dans les cosmétiques. Tandis que Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou, une ancienne grosse pointure de L'Oréal (vingt-trois ans de maison), lui aussi poursuivi aux prud'hommes par son ancien employeur, doit lui prêter main-forte du haut de son obscur poste de "vice-président exécutif des missions stratégiques."
Avant d'arriver aujourd'hui chez Acqua di Parma, Giulio Bergamaschi, a, lui aussi, été placé en attente chez Loro Piana comme "directeur des missions stratégiques" de ce spécialiste du cachemire haut de gamme, après son départ de la présidence de Biotherm. Et ce pendant un an, soit le temps d'une clause de non-concurrence. Il n'a pas dû être trop déboussolé car Loro Piana est dirigé par Damien Bertrand, qui a effectué neuf ans chez L'Oréal selon les indications fournies sur LinkedIn... mais dix-huit ans en réalité.
Même hors de la branche beauté
LVMH ne se contente pas en effet de placer les anciens de la grande tribu dirigée par Jean-Paul Agon et Nicolas Hieronimus à la tête de ses différentes marques de cosmétiques. Le 16 janvier par exemple, le groupe a nommé en toute discrétion Andrea Cabrera à la direction de la communication de Moët Hennessy.
Mais il s'agissait là moins de cacher ses vingt-six ans de maison chez l'Oréal que de taire le renvoi discret de son prédécesseur Jean-Martial Ribes (LLA du 26/10/22). L'ex-directeur de la communication du club de football Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), accusé par Mediapart de manipulation d'information via la création de faux comptes sur Twitter, a été écarté après sa seconde période d'essai.
Early premarket gappers
- Gapping up:
- WOR +7%, SNY +6.4%, REGN +6.2%, EVTL +4.5%, SCS +3.5%, ETNB +3.1%, CG +2.4%, KBH +2.3%, AFYA +2.1%, UPST +1.9%, FRC +1.7%, AIMC +1.5%, GPC +1.1%, RJF +0.8%, ATUS +0.6%
- Gapping down:
- COIN -11%, CHWY -5.7%, CDTX -5.3%, MLKN -4.1%, MANU -3.8%, PHR -1.8%, EXEL -1.3%, CSX -0.8%, IONS -0.7%, MDRX -0.6%
Swiss regulator defends $17bn wipeout of AT1 bonds in Credit Suisse deal
Writedown after takeover by UBS enraged holders of risky bonds
Swiss financial regulator Finma has defended its decision to wipe out a huge swath of risky subordinated bonds as part of the Credit Suisse rescue deal.
The move taken on Sunday, which rendered SFr16bn ($17.4bn) of investments worthless, has become one of the most controversial elements of the shotgun marriage between Credit Suisse and its larger rival, UBS, brokered by Swiss authorities.
Just hours after the deal was announced, other large market regulators began to distance themselves from the decision, fearful that it would endanger banks’ ability to raise capital in the future.
Enraged bondholders have pledged to sue the Swiss government and Finma over the matter.
In its first statement on the deal since the weekend, Finma said on Thursday that all the contractual and legal obligations had been met for it to act unilaterally given the urgency of the situation.
“On Sunday, a solution was found to protect clients, the financial centre and the markets,” said Finma’s chief executive Urban Angehrn. “In this context, it is important that Credit Suisse’s banking business continues to function smoothly and without interruption.”
Speaking to the press on Thursday, SNB president Thomas Jordan argued that the purchase by UBS had been the only option for Credit Suisse, saying that a takeover of the bank by the government and stabilisation of it in a process known as resolution would have risked a systemic crisis.
“Resolution in theory is possible under normal circumstances, but we were in an extremely fragile environment with enormous nervousness in financial markets in general,” said Jordan. “Resolution in those circumstances would have triggered a bigger financial crisis, not just in Switzerland but globally.”
“[It] would not have worked to stabilise the situation but, on the contrary, created enormous uncertainty . . . It was clear that we should avoid it if there was any other possibility.”
At the crux of the controversy was the regulator’s decision — taken in conjunction with the Swiss National Bank and Swiss ministry of finance — to preserve some value for Credit Suisse shareholders, who would nominally be subordinated to any bondholders in the capital structure.
UBS will pay SFr3.25bn for Credit Suisse’s shares.
The “AT1” bonds in question — a type of hybrid debt instrument created after the financial crash of 2008 to give banks greater capital flexibility in the event of crises — contained explicit contractual language that they would be “completely written down in a ‘viability event’ in particular if extraordinary government support is granted”, Finma said. This allowed the regulator to prioritise equity holders ahead of AT1 holders.
As part of the acquisition deal by UBS, the combined bank will receive SFr9bn of government guarantees and a SFr100bn liquidity lifeline from the Swiss National Bank.
An additional emergency government ordinance issued by Bern on Sunday had further confirmed the power to take decisions over elements of a bank’s capital structure in Swiss law, Finma added.
“[The] instruments in Switzerland are designed in such a way that they are written down or converted into [equity] before the equity capital of the bank concerned is completely used up or written down,” it said, pointing out that the bonds were designed for the use of sophisticated institutional investors because of their risky hybrid nature.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Pallas Partners are among the law firms representing bondholders that have pledged to fight the Swiss decision.
Quinn hosted a call on Wednesday joined by more than 750 participants.
Partner Richard East told the Financial Times the deal was “a resolution dressed up as a merger” and pointed to statements by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, which distanced themselves from the Swiss approach.
“You know something has gone wrong when other regulators come and politely point out that in a resolution [they] would have respected ordinary priorities,” he said.
Europe is having a better banking crisis than the US
Europe has made a valiant effort to seize back the banking shitshow crown it has owned for most of the past decade, but at the moment it seems the US still has a firmer grasp of it.
Deutsche Bank’s George Saravelos has sent over some interesting charts on how US and European banks are faring at the moment. Notwithstanding the messy final denouement of Credit Suisse’s yearslong faceplants, Europe still looks better.
European bank stocks have markedly outperformed US ones this year, both in the early-year rally, the subsequent sell-off and now the bounce. Credit-default swaps are also materially lower on European bank bonds.
Some of this is just the starting point that Saravelos chose (things would look very different if you used a 10-year timeframe!) but it’s also because the European banking deposit base looks a lot more stable.
“This points to the shock in the US being more systemic, broad-based and preceding the last few weeks’ volatility,” Saravelos argues.
To this we’d add that European banks are also far bigger relative lenders than US ones, as the bond market does far more of the heavy lifting on that side of the Atlantic. That means that European banks are probably more exposed to floating rate debt than fixed income bonds.
Saravelos argues this is why the European Central Bank is sounding a lot more hawkish than the Federal Reserve at the moment — the negative impact from financial stresses on broader credit conditions will be much greater in the US than in Europe.
That sounds right to us. But longtime Europe-watchers will know that the continent’s banks are adept at finding new rakes to step on.
Closing Stock Market SummaryThe majority of today's session was marked by lackluster action as investors awaited the FOMC policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET followed by Fed Chair Powell's press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET. The main indices spent the morning oscillating near their flat lines, sporting only modest gains or losses, but ultimately closed the session sharply lower.
Briefly, the FOMC voted unanimously to raise the target range for the fed funds rate by 25 basis points to 4.75-5.00%. In turn, the language of the directive and the Summary of Economic Projections, which showed the Fed's median terminal rate of 5.10% unchanged from December, made it appear as if the Fed is going to entertain the idea of pausing its rate hikes soon.
That view prompted a knee-jerk, positive reaction in the stock market following the release of the directive; however, the positive price action shifted abruptly as Fed Chair Powell was speaking. Bids disappeared and stock prices fell prone to broad based selling interest that accelerated in the last hour of the session.
That retreat was hastened by Fed Chair Powell's acknowledgment that Fed participants do not see rate cuts this year. Separately, he also acknowledged his belief that the events in the banking system do not help the possibility of a soft landing for the economy.
All together, Mr. Powell did not sound especially hawkish nor dovish in his commentary. Importantly though, he did not sound particularly confident in the outlook either and we suspect that lack of confidence played a part as well in undermining investor confidence that led to the selling during his presentation.
Bank stocks found themselves under renewed selling pressure, with losses compounding during and after the press conference. The SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE) fell 5.2% and the SPDR Regional Bank ETF (KRE) fell 5.7%. To be fair, losses compounded for most stocks.
The S&P 500 retraced all of yesterday's gains and closed just above its 200-day moving average (3,934).
All 11 S&P 500 sectors closed with sizable losses ranging from 0.9% (information technology) to 3.6% (real estate). Another notable laggard was the financial sector, down 2.4%.
Treasuries settled the session with gains across the curve. The 2-yr note yield fell 20 basis points and the 10-yr note yield fell 11 basis points to 3.50%. The U.S. Dollar Index fell 0.9% to 102.38.
- Nasdaq Composite: +11.5% YTD
- S&P 500: +2.5% YTD
- S&P Midcap 400: -1.4% YTD
- Russell 2000: -1.9% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: -3.4% YTD
Reviewing today's economic data:
- Weekly MBA Mortgage Application Index rose 3.0% with refinancing applications increasing 5.0% and purchase applications rising 2.0%
- Weekly EIA Crude Oil Inventories showed a draw of 1.06 million barrels following a build of 1.55 million
Looking ahead to Thursday, market participants will receive the following economic data:
- 8:30 ET: Weekly Initial Claims (Briefing.com consensus 204,000; prior 192,000), Continuing Claims (prior 1.684 mln), and Q4 Current Account balance (prior -$217.10 bln)
- 10:00 ET: February New Home Sales ( consensus 650,000; prior 670,000)
- 10:30 ET: Weekly natural gas inventories (prior -58 bcf)