Ten years after the sale, Arnault rejects any accusation of abuse of Hermès shares Faced with the accusations of Nicolas Puech, the cashmere wolf defends himself in a statement

Last week, the mud that has been tarnishing for years now the relationship between Hermès and LVMH was stirred once again, as Bernard Arnault appeared before the Paris judicial court to face Nicolas Puech, heir of the Maison with the orange bags, from whom the cashmere wolf inherited no fewer than six million shares in 2010. Shares that today are worth 14 million euros, but above all appear to have been suspiciously transferred, according to the octogenarian heir.

Indeed, the French newspaper Libération revealed a few days ago that Puech had allegedly been dispossessed of six million Hermès shares (representing around 5.76% of the capital and worth about 14.3 billion euros today) by his former wealth manager, Éric Freymond (who died in July) in 2010. Six million shares that would not have gone into just anyone’s portfolio, but straight into the pocket of another hungry luxury tycoon: Bernard Arnault, in an attempt at a historic stock market raid. Conditions of acquisition that, fifteen years later, make Arnault a potential receiver of the offence of breach of trust, or even an accomplice in the dispossession of these shares.

Faced with these accusations, followed of course by media uproar, the LVMH group and its leader did not fail to defend themselves through an official statement in which the cashmere wolf firmly denies these accusations, stating: “LVMH and its shareholder strongly reaffirm that they have at no point diverted any shares of Hermès International, in any manner whatsoever or without anyone’s knowledge, and do not hold any ‘hidden’ shares.” For the group, Nicolas Puech “decided to turn to the French courts after having been dismissed by the Swiss courts on numerous occasions.”

The group also took this opportunity to recall that the initial conflict between LVMH and Hermès was officially settled in September 2014 before the Paris Commercial Court, prior to a dismissal order following a criminal investigation into the 2010 raid issued in 2015. LVMH finally denounces a “manifestly coordinated media campaign” and reserves the right to take action to defend its rights.