Succession at LVMH? We don’t talk about it, says Arnault’s wife 

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PARIS, Dec 4 – Succession plans at luxury giant LVMH are seldom discussed within the controlling Arnault family, according to remarks by CEO Bernard Arnault’s wife published in France’s Liberation newspaper on Thursday.

In corporate Europe, questions have long swirled around who will succeed France’s wealthiest man Arnault, 76, who is also chairman of LVMH and, along with his family, a controlling shareholder.

“It’s a topic that the two of us almost never discuss,” his wife Helene Mercier told the newspaper in rare remarks for an article about one of Arnault’s five children, Antoine.

“It’s entirely up to him,” she said. 

LVMH did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The group, which is worth some 312 billion euros ($364.32 billion), owns brands including Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Tiffany and Dom Perignon champagne.

In April, LVMH shareholders overwhelmingly approved a change to company bylaws that raised the maximum age of its chairman and chief executive to 85 from 80.

While Arnault’s age isn’t a problem for investors, lack of clarity about who would take over from him has become a concern, some LVMH investors recently told Reuters.

All of Arnault’s children hold top management positions in the group. The eldest, Delphine, 50, and Antoine, 48, are children from his first marriage, while Alexandre, 33, Frederic, 30 and Jean, 27, are his children with Helene.

Mercier downplayed suggestions of tension within the family, where Arnault’s five children are a constant topic of tabloid gossip and speculation in France.

“We are a blended family, but we are united and we love each other. There is no open conflict,” she said.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro, editing by Adam Jourdan and Bernadette Baum)