PARIS – Frédéric Arnault, a son of Bernard Arnault, has been appointed managing director of Financière Agache, the luxury tycoon’s main holding company, according to its web site.
Frédéric Arnault’s ascension comes as he and his four siblings – including Delphine Arnault, Antoine Arnault, Alexandre Arnault and Jean Arnault – are in line to succeed their father as head of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Financière Agache’s parent company is Agache, a limited partnership controlled by the Arnault family that holds majority stakes in Dior SE and LVMH SE.
Frédéric Arnault succeeds Nicolas Bazire in the managing director position and also serves on the holding company’s board of directors representing Agache SCA.
Arnault has been on the rise at LVMH. Early this year, he was named chief executive officer of LVMH Watches, a newly created position overseeing timepiece makers such as Hublot, Zenith and Tag Heuer. Prior to that, the executive had served as CEO of Tag Heuer.
Tag Heuer
Courtesy of Tag Heuer
He and his brother, Alexandre Arnault, joined LVMH’s board of directors in April, as Bazire stepped down from the board.
Bazire is awaiting the start of his appeals trial in what’s come to be known as the Karachi Affair, related to arms deals with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in the 1990s.
Today only Jean Arnault, the youngest sibling, does not yet sit on LVMH’s board.
In a move designed to hand control of the entity to Bernard Arnault’s five children, Financière Agache in 2022 announced plans to convert into a limited joint-stock partnership.
“This new structure will permit to perpetuate the family control over the long term and will permit a unified expression of the controlling shareholder’s voice regarding Christian Dior SE and LVMH SE,” Agache said in a statement published at the time.