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How the Hermès Family Held Off LVMH
Season 1
Episode 8
Published 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Description
In 2010, Bernard Arnault's LVMH quietly amassed a 17% stake in Hermès through equity swaps, triggering one of the most dramatic family-business defense campaigns in modern finance. Lucas and Luna unpack how the Hermès family consolidated 50.2% of shares into a holding company, locked up voting rights for 20 years, and repelled a hostile suitor without a poison pill. They walk through the specific legal mechanics — the AMF investigation, the court rulings, the art-market proxy fight — and ask whether the family's victory was worth the lost liquidity and the closed-loop governance it created. A masterclass in playing offense when you're the target.