Hermes just can’t get comfortable.
Just one day after the Hermès family announced that their new non-listed holding company — which they created to protect the company’s shares from LVMH’s encroaching ownership — was officially up and running, LVMH said it had increased its stake in Hermès yet again. According to a statement released today by France’s stock market authority AMF, LVMH upped its stake from 21.4 percent to 22.3 percent. It now holds 16 percent of the firm’s voting rights. Although Hermès’s new non-listed company arrangement will make it harder for LVMH to acquire company stocks in the future, the timing of LVMH’s announcement implies that Bernard Arnault has no intention of backing down.
