- The eldest son of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault will be stepping down as the CEO of Berluti.
- Bernard Arnault is the world’s third-richest man, and all five of his children work for LVMH brands.
- Arnault has previously expressed disdain for comparisons made between his family and HBO’s “Succession.”
Antoine Arnault, the eldest son of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, will be stepping down as the CEO of Berluti, a luxury shoe brand under the LVMH umbrella.
The executive reshuffle, announced by the company on Wednesday, is slated to go into effect in January 2024.
Speculation has brewed for years over the succession plan at LVMH, and whether any of Bernard Arnault’s five children — all of whom work at LVMH brands — will be taking over the reins of the luxury giant.
Bernard Arnault’s eldest and only daughter, Delphine Arnault, became the CEO and chairperson of Christian Dior in February. Christian Dior is LVMH’s largest shareholder.
Antoine Arnault, 46, is slated to remain Berluti’s chairman after the reshuffle. The luxury shoe brand is expected to make $327 in sales this year, Bloomberg reported, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.
In an interview with the New York Times in September, Bernard Arnault expressed his disdain for comparisons drawn between his family and HBO’s hit show “Succession.” The series portrays a family’s power struggle for control of a media empire anchored by a dominant patriarch.
“The best person inside the family or outside the family should be one day my successor. But it’s not something that I hope is a duel for the near future,” he told the Times.
The luxury tycoon convenes a monthly private lunch with his five children at LVMH’s global headquarters in Paris to discuss the company’s strategy and performance, the Wall Street Journal reported in April, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
The elder Arnault — who currently has a net worth of $171 billion — was once the world’s richest person, but has since fallen behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon cofounder Jeff Bezos, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
LVMH declined BI’s request for comment.
