LVMH, the company responsible for Louis Vuitton, has taken a larger slice of the Hermes International pie. The brand bought 17.1% of the company in October, but recently upped its stake in the French luxury brand to around 20.21%.
LVMH originally insisted it had only “friendly” intentions towards Hermes, but the founding families weren’t convinced. Given this recent development, I don’t think I would be either.
These founding families currently own almost 72% of the company, so I can’t imagine LVMH staging a takeover easily. But the Dumas, Puech, and Guerrand clans aren’t taking any chances. They recently created a new holding company, thereby “detaining more than 50% of the Hermes International” to stave off a LVMH attack.
Many analysts are predicting that LVMH is simply biding its time, and waiting to wear the Hermes families down. Something tells me we’ll be watching developments in this story well into 2011 and beyond.
