LVMH - The Luxury Goods Conglomerate

[proseccotabis]

So just like Hermès then
But tbh the Arnaults are sometimes looked down by both the aristocracy and old money, in a funny mix of envy and condescension (is that a world in English ?), he is not liked nor accepted by the old grand society.

So, in the classic way of social climbers, BA is buying a lot of historical property this last months;
- the Hotel de Soyécourt, rue de l'U: the Pozzo di Borgo family divided the place in several apartments and Karl used to rent the ground floor with garden for decades. I think Marni then Valentino had shows in this apt last year. The Pozzo di Borgo sold to Gabon 15 years ago and now Gabon is forced to resale it. LVMH is buying it from the Gabon state for €200 m approximately.
- Hotel de la Salle, 21 rue de l'U, for Dior - a surprise - , but Dior has never succeeded rive gauche, so I suspect I will be the creative studio.
- BA has already a mansion rue Barbet-de-Jouy, bought from Bethy Lagardère, but he is buying feu Emanuel Ungaro's one, just next to him, and on the other side but on the same sidewalk, there is the residency of the Archibishop of Paris. And he just bought it for a hefty price, in a move that surprised many well-connected catholics (think traditional princesses and dukes), which are now saying his donation for Notre-Dame was with strings attached. But that's the usual parisian salon perfidy.

And you know his son-in-law bought Givenchy's apartment in 2019, just in front of YSL HQ, so right now him and DA are spending another 100 m€ to buy the remaining apts and get the whole mansion.

So this family/business just spend 400 to 500 m€ for prestigious adresses in the last 3 months, and hearing him complaining about French taxation during the last results call was kind of ironic.

But he is very serious with LVMH expanding their Rochambeau Ranch in Texas, LV already has 2 outposts in California and 1 in Texas, called Rochambeau Ranch. He wants a 2nd LV manufacturing plant there, another one for all the LVMH brands and a big campus to train workers. And a bigger mansion too on the same plot.

The blueprints are approved but not the timing of the announcement, because BA had a spat with Macron - who he holds responsible for the current instability (and the new tax) - and turned to DJT and Elon Musk last fall, and Elon convinced him Texas is better than California. But considering how DT and EM are toxic right now in the French public opinion, and the possibility of tariffs on his own products, BA/LVMH is dreading that this announcement could be seen as an endorsement of DJT and/or EM.

I wish I had more real fashion gossips, but people who work for him (and still do not like him), are only giving me corporate/family office gossips. He is surprisingly surrounded by a lot of loose lips, who leak way too much.

Wow thank you for expanding your answer, I enjoy your knowledge!
The amount of $ BA has is.. I’m at loss for words really
Regarding the Nepo thing- Hermes is definitely worse, that’s for sure. LOL.

 

[FashionFanatico]

The blueprints are approved but not the timing of the announcement, because BA had a spat with Macron - who he holds responsible for the current instability (and the new tax) - and turned to DJT and Elon Musk last fall, and Elon convinced him Texas is better than California. But considering how DT and EM are toxic right now in the French public opinion, and the possibility of tariffs on his own products, BA/LVMH is dreading that this announcement could be seen as an endorsement of DJT and/or EM.

It’s about money and the next power move, nothing more… as always.

Emmanuel Macron is a very, very good friend of BA. The two of them, it is said in the Élysée, have a mutual crush. When Arnault, 75 years old, visits the palace, he takes a side entrance. Macron often listens to Arnault on political matters - but not always. Now is such a moment again, But Macron is no longer as powerful as he used to be. France is heavily indebted and the deficit is out of control: the country has to save money. This is particularly complicated when there is no majority in parliament.

The government of France could fall over its 2025 budget this week in a vote of no confidence. To ensure that this does not happen, the centrist and prime minister Bayrou granted a demand from the Socialists during the negotiations and increased corporate taxes for large companies. They are intended to make a kind of gesture of solidarity in difficult times, after years of the president's extremely business-friendly policies. And only once. "When you return to France, it's a bit like a cold shower," BA said to the press. Then he added an ominously sarcastic, much-discussed sentence. "If the idea is to create an incentive for 'Made in France' companies to relocate their activities abroad, then the measure is ideal."

Arnault began his career in the real estate industry. When the socialist François Mitterrand came to power in France in 1981 and nationalized a number of companies, he moved to New York for a few years, into self-imposed exile. There he met Trump. Every time the left gains power, he threatens to leave France. In 2012, when François Hollande became president, it was said that Arnault was going to Belgium. Then he stayed. And after the early parliamentary elections in 2024, in which the left-wing alliance won the most votes, he is said to have warned Macron against appointing a left-wing prime minister because he only had “fiscal madness” in mind. Is he now moving his factories??

Of LVMH's 213,000 employees, only 40,000 work in France. A few years ago he built the factory in Texas. Trump welcomed him back then as a “great artist and visionary”.

 

[vogue22]

Emmanuel Macron is a very, very good friend of BA. The two of them, it is said in the Élysée, have a mutual crush. When Arnault, 75 years old, visits the palace, he takes a side entrance.

Lmaoo not Macron has a crush on Bernard Arnault, he is in fact part of "la cage aux folles" he was joking about!

 

[vogue22]

"When you return to France, it's a bit like a cold shower," BA said to the press. Then he added an ominously sarcastic, much-discussed sentence. "If the idea is to create an incentive for 'Made in France' companies to relocate their activities abroad, then the measure is ideal."

Of LVMH's 213,000 employees, only 40,000 work in France. A few years ago he built the factory in Texas. Trump welcomed him back then as a “great artist and visionary”.

Right, go ahead Bernard, move it all to Texas! Let’s see how that plays out in two years when no one wants to buy Louis Vuitton or Dior’s overpriced crap made by underpaid disappearing immigrant workers.

 

[Avonlea]

Just sell the whole Paris to Arnault and call him a roi. It's ridiculous how one man can have so much power.

 

[yslforever]

It’s about money and the next power move, nothing more… as always.

Emmanuel Macron is a very, very good friend of BA. The two of them, it is said in the Élysée, have a mutual crush. When Arnault, 75 years old, visits the palace, he takes a side entrance. Macron often listens to Arnault on political matters - but not always. Now is such a moment again, But Macron is no longer as powerful as he used to be. France is heavily indebted and the deficit is out of control: the country has to save money. This is particularly complicated when there is no majority in parliament.

The government of France could fall over its 2025 budget this week in a vote of no confidence. To ensure that this does not happen, the centrist and prime minister Bayrou granted a demand from the Socialists during the negotiations and increased corporate taxes for large companies. They are intended to make a kind of gesture of solidarity in difficult times, after years of the president's extremely business-friendly policies. And only once. "When you return to France, it's a bit like a cold shower," BA said to the press. Then he added an ominously sarcastic, much-discussed sentence. "If the idea is to create an incentive for 'Made in France' companies to relocate their activities abroad, then the measure is ideal."

Arnault began his career in the real estate industry. When the socialist François Mitterrand came to power in France in 1981 and nationalized a number of companies, he moved to New York for a few years, into self-imposed exile. There he met Trump. Every time the left gains power, he threatens to leave France. In 2012, when François Hollande became president, it was said that Arnault was going to Belgium. Then he stayed. And after the early parliamentary elections in 2024, in which the left-wing alliance won the most votes, he is said to have warned Macron against appointing a left-wing prime minister because he only had “fiscal madness” in mind. Is he now moving his factories??

Of LVMH's 213,000 employees, only 40,000 work in France. A few years ago he built the factory in Texas. Trump welcomed him back then as a “great artist and visionary”.

Oh BA loved Macron for years, even before he was elected for his first term. But since last June, he holds a grudge against him, he thinks Macron is 100% responsible of the «dissolution », and losing his majority on the snap elections that followed. So now we have an unstable majority who have just raised taxes. So he hates that.

And he is paranoid of the left or the radical left, which can takeover after Macron second term.
The funny thing is that when he took-over Boussac he got many subsidies from Mitterrand governments to «help keep the employment at Boussac millworks ».
Ofc he did not, he kept Dior and closed the millworks, but abusing Mitterrand’s subsidies was a sport back then and he wasn’t the only one.

As a man from the 80s, he is also paranoid of old-school kidnappings (Baron Empain) or political assassination (Direct Action, Red Brigades).

He is also paranoid of secrecy and leaks, but in the same time, his entourage leaks a lot, and all the media he blacklisted finally get the best info, like in this thread about Dior.

For the time being, he is not closing any LV workshop in France, but he wants to expand in in the USA for future growth.

 

[yslforever]

Lmaoo not Macron has a crush on Bernard Arnault, he is in fact part of "la cage aux folles" he was joking about!

Rumours are on the bisexual side of "la cage aux folles", if we believe the story about his Iranian actress mistress.
But are doing all the gossips ?