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- Bernard Arnault is set to appoint two more of his children to the LVMH's board, reports say.
- He's expected to nominate Alexandre, a VP at Tiffany, and Frédéric, head of LVMH's watches division.
- Arnault's five children all have prestigious roles at LVMH, and two are already on the board.
Bernard Arnault, the world's third-richest person, is set to appoint two more of his children to LVMH's board, France's La Lettre first reported. The story was also reported by outlets including Bloomberg and The Financial Times.
The French billionaire plans to propose his sons Alexandre Arnault, 31, and Frédéric Arnault, 29, as board members, the reports say, quoting unnamed sources. Their appointments would need to be approved by shareholders at the company's annual meeting in April, but that is largely a formality.
Four of Arnault's five children will sit on the LVMH board if their appointments are confirmed.
Delphine, Bernard's oldest child and only daughter, has been on the board since 2003, while eldest son Antoine has been a director since 2006.
The moves will spark renewed speculation about which of Arnault's children might one day take over running LVMH. It's valued at about 335 billion euros ($363 billion), making it Europe's second most valuable company after Novo Nordisk, the Danish maker of Ozempic.
Arnault hasn't commented publicly about a possible successor. In 2022, LVMH raised the age limit for its CEO from 75 to 80, extending Bernard's possible tenure. He turns 75 in March.
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LVMH is the world's biggest luxury conglomerate and its dozens of brands include Louis Vuitton, Dior, Marc Jacobs, Moët & Chandon, Fenty Beauty, and Tiffany & Co.
The company has more than 5,600 stores and had revenues of about $86 billion in 2022.
LVMH didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the board appointments.
Alexandre became executive vice-president for product and communications at Tiffany & Co aged just 28 after LVMH bought the jewelry maker for $15.8 billion in 2020.
He also spent about four years as CEO of Rimowa after reportedly persuading his father to buy an 80% stake in the upmarket German luggage brand in 2016.
"I was obviously raised to be in the group," Alexandre told The New York Times in 2018. Former President Donald Trump said in February that he'd hosted Alexandre and his wife for dinner at Mar-a-Lago and called him "a young man on the move."
Frédéric was appointed head to a new role running LVMH's watches division in January. He was previously CEO of Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer, a role he'd held since 2020 when he was just 25.
Delphie is CEO of Christian Dior Couture, Antoine is CEO of Christian Dior SE, the holding company the family uses to control LVMH, and Jean, the youngest of Bernard's sons, at 25, leads Louis Vuitton's watches division.
Arnault cofounded LVMH in the 1980s and is its CEO and chairman.
In May 2023, he became the third person to be worth more than $200 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Arnault is worth an estimated $162 billion, mostly from his stake in LVMH, putting him third after Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who are worth $217 billion and $180 billion respectively, per Bloomberg.