Minority Blocking as Power Wedge

“On September 15th, a statement from Financière Agache made it clear: Jacques Rober holds 32% of the capital. Considering the Obsa he possesses, his participation amounts to 37.4% after dilution, but more importantly, Bernard Arnault is approaching the blocking minority in voting rights, a blocking minority that until now only the Vuitton clan possessed.”

“Certainly, on January 5 and 6, he launched a real raid on LVMH. In forty-eight hours, he picked up 870,000 shares, or 7.5% of the capital, propelling the share price to 4,720 francs. He thus secured the minority blocking vote, thanked former president Alain Chevalier, and sat in his CEO chair. But he navigated so well through the intricacies of the law that no one has so far concluded that there has been a change of control (in legal terms). This hypothesis would have obliged him to launch a takeover bid or to carry out a price maintenance, at a cost of around 30 billion francs.”