Nicolas Puech resigned from the Supervisory Board of Hermes
EXCLUSIVE While LVMH and Hermes bury the hatchet, its largest shareholder has decided not to sit on the inner sanctum of the family group.
Nicolas Puech decided in the heart of summer, leaving office in the Supervisory Board of Hermes as a result of recurring disagreements with the rest of his family. On August 18 he sent a letter to the Hermès Group as well as the AMF to inform them of his resignation which has not yet been made public.
This decision comes Hermes and LVMH decided to bury the hatchet. In a statement, the two groups announced Wednesday morning that through the mediation of Gentin Frank, President of the Commercial Court of Paris, LVMH, which owns over 23% stake in its rival, will distribute all of its Hermes to its shareholders and is committed not to buy new shares for five shares.
Strained relations with his cousins
The threat of a creeping takeover of his company had pushed Hermes to collect a big chunk of its shares in a holding company, 51 H locking the capital of the group. All family shareholders had agreed to accommodate their participation except Nicolas Puech, who refused to place its 5.7%. "I told my family that locking up our shares in a holding company had the major disadvantage of depriving the family shareholders of their individual power to control management. Freedom of each is the best guarantee of our unity in the long run , "he explained to the Sunday newspaper in 2011.
Living between Martigny in Switzerland and Andalusia, Nicolas Puech took little part in the strategic debate of Hermès although sitting on the Supervisory Board since May 2012 His relationship with his cousins had become strained when the AMF report revealed by Le Monde claimed that two-thirds of the shares acquired by LVMH in hedging equity swaps between 2007 and 2008 would come from Swiss accounts Nicolas Puech. A thesis that has always strongly denied remembering it accounted for 8.8% stake in Hermes, and he never officially held more than 6% interest.
Nicolas Puech delighted
Today Nicolas Puech is "very happy" that the two sides have finally found common ground. "I wanted for a long time that LVMH and Hermes to speak to an agreement, it is done. This is perfect, "Has he said through his spokesman. Provided it is unlikely that Nicolas Puech has played a role in this? "It was too far from the Parisian circles of the two groups," says a close Axel Dumas.
Several attempts of approaches have been tried last year without success. "The two clans have really advanced in their thinking early summer noting they neutralize each other and the situation was not ideal for either one or the other," said a source familiar with the matter. Frank Gentin, President of the Commercial Court of Paris then worked until last night to get the signature of Bernard Arnault and Axel Dumas.