Duménil-Leblé

"Arnault will therefore use the third solution, that of cascading. This involves stacking control companies on top of each other and opening their capital to minority shareholders who wish to be associated with the presumed success. These can be anonymous small investors or clearly identified external partners. He had already practiced this in 1986 when he had to pay cash for the last Willot shares. To find the 400 million francs, he sold a portion of the capital of Arnault et Associés, the former Férinel, his holding company, to Crédit Lyonnais and Duménil-Leblé. The following year, he raised funds by listing 13% of Conforama on the stock market. He brought Guinness in at 40%, then 45%, within Jacques Rober, the shell that now holds the LVMH shares. Of course, the sales are always partial. Bernard Arnault's golden rule is to always retain, under any circumstances, 51% of the capital of his companies to ensure he maintains control."

"At the top of the network, Bernard Arnault places Arnault & Associés, the parent company of the whole (formerly Boussac, now Financière Agache et Férinel). The cornerstone of Bernard Arnault's financial construction, this company is the one that will benefit most from the restructuring carried out within the group. It not only receives dividends from the various subsidiaries of the group, but it is also the main owner of this heterogeneous structure which counts no less than ten companies, most of which are profitable. Arnault & Associés is controlled 60% by the Arnault family, the rest being held by a group of investors (Crédit Lyonnais, Duménil-Leblé, BNP, GAN, Finial...) (see table 1)."

"Jacques Letertre. He succeeded because he went fast. In less than four years, he became the president of Duménil-Leblé, a former small brokerage house that became a bank, and he is at the head of a colossal fortune. His recipe: take full advantage of the pitfalls of regulation whenever possible. Initially, he fully benefited from "interest rate spreads" by detecting the very lucrative niche of arbitrage between the money market and the bond market: Duménil issued 2 to 10-year bills on the money market, then carrying an interest rate of around 9.5% at 5 years. He simultaneously subscribed with the capital raised to bonds of the same duration yielding up to 11%. It was enough to pocket the difference. It took his success for the Bank of France to regulate activities on "interest rate spreads" and limit the jackpot."