François Pinault

"One evening in 1973, Hubert Guidai, his first deputy in Rennes, apologized for having to leave him to pick up his daughter from nursery. The next morning, François Pinault asked him where his wife worked and what she earned. He immediately increased his colleague's salary by the announced amount so that his wife could stop working."

"if François Pinault wins, it's because he invests himself, literally in the analytical sense of the term, he puts all his psychic, physical, and intellectual energy into his businesses."

"François Pinault is the first to confess: "When I see a fat schooner go by, my appetite wakens.""

"that Ambroise Roux, the prince of the Establishment5 of big business, is asking for him on the phone, François Pinault thinks it's a joke. He doesn't have an office in Paris yet. But Ambroise Roux is calling him to ask him to join the very closed circle of AFEP, the French Association of Private Companies he is creating, with about twenty major bosses who survived the first wave of nationalizations (which deprived him of the management of the CGE6). This will be the decisive transformation of François Pinault's network of relations and the start of an unwavering friendship."

"François Pinault then realized that the only way out for him was to forcibly carve out a role that was not planned. He took the plunge, not just metaphorically, and decided to blow up not one link, but the entire chain at once, which involved switching from loading one or two wagons at Saint-Malo to an entire ship in Scandinavia and, importantly, featuring only one intermediary agent instead three, the agent of the sellers. This was feasible for someone who had no experience in maritime transportation because this agent of the Scandinavian exporters also took care of the chartering of the ships. However, this was a transition from one or two wagons to a ship, which is a change in scale in volumes and in money from one not to ten or twenty, but squarely to a hundred."

"We should also note that, even though the magnitude of the gamble taken with the chartering of this first ship is somewhat excessive, François Pinault is looking for his development in a sector where capital investments and fixed costs are not of the same order of magnitude as in the industry, far from it."

""François Pinault's first quality is to delegate. You can see, there's never anything on his desk.""

"He flies very quickly on his own, with the conviction that there is a place to take in his trade. He is more resolute, faster and he immediately has the conviction that he absolutely needs to expand. First, respond to all requests, especially do not miss any and, for that, he hires a little. François Pinault Establishments, trading in coniferous, wood and panels. He knows that he does not have the means to wait for the client and must always go on the offensive, convince him, show him that it is better to go through him. He innovates by applying as a matter of course methods hitherto foreign to traditional commerce-to the wood trade especially, encrusted in its traditions-, touching the range of choices, the analysis of the competition and the concern for speed that disrupt the first supermarkets in rural areas."

"François Pinault has indeed already been able to inspire confidence in Roger Puéchaldou, from Crédit Lyonnais in Rennes. And, already, he works with the money he borrows. His debt unsettles the augurs of good homes in the area who, reproducing their profits identically, do not think about modernising, neither by the benefits they garner, nor, especially, by attracting other capitals."

"Coniferous trees are used for structural timber. When they are of the best quality, they are used for joinery and decoration. François Pinault hires to organise his storage and equips himself with a representative, and then a second one who will approach the joiner-carpenters in order to expand his sector and create a network of transactions with the obsession of reaching the size that will allow him to obtain the best wholesale prices. When his clientele has become large enough, as he still doesn't have any cash flow, he comes up with the idea of taking pre-orders, in order to group them together and be able to buy more in bulk, which is naturally also in the interest of his customers. In 1964, with such methods, he reaches a turnover of one million (to be multiplied by seven to get the figure in 1997 francs)."

"François Pinault met Jean Arnault and probably Bernard, his neighbor. They didn't know each other."

"This is how François Pinault thinks. On May 10, 1981, the Breton businessman, then relatively unknown, was in Rennes, where he had voted. As soon as the results were known, he went down to the street and spent the evening observing the jubilant crowd and smelling the air of the new times. He was skeptical but interested. And on Monday morning, he went to buy a high-end BMW in cash, both to "ward off bad luck" and to lift the spirits of his dealer, who was despairing at the thought of never selling another beautiful car again..."

"Chance will then serve Bernard Arnault. At least that's what he will later claim. According to the official version, one of his friends overheard a conversation on a train where a representative of Worms & Co. revealed to his interlocutor the operation planned behind Arnault's back. In this case, chance is a convenient excuse: it could disguise a very organized intelligence gathering policy that the Arnault group, like many others, will refine over the years, turning it into a veritable weapon of war in the conflict that will later pit him against François Pinault."

"From Vincent Bolloré to Carlo De Benedetti, passing through Jean-Charles Naouri and François Pinault, many exhausted the charms of capital-less capitalism in the 1980s."

"Six months were enough. Bernard Arnault had won. Better still: he had closed the door behind him. Because of his hussar-style offensive, the Stock Exchange Operations Commission would now require any buyer of more than 33% of a listed company's shares to launch a takeover bid for at least 66% of the capital, to protect the interests of minority shareholders. No one would be able to conquer a company the value of LVMH without paying the price. Door closed behind him? In France, yes, but not everywhere. Because this regulation does not exist in the Netherlands. This would allow François Pinault, ten years later, to do the same thing to Arnault with Gucci as Arnault had done to Racamier and Chevalier!"

"Jean-Luc Lagardère, Vincent Bolloré, Jean-Charles Naouri, François Pinault,"

"While Bernard Arnault, as we will see, would mobilize intelligence agency Kroll Associates to reveal all the small and big secrets of his opponent, François Pinault, on the other hand, would turn to Antoine Gaudino to uncover and, if possible, make known the practices he supposed to be diabolical of the "exterminating angel.""

"While François Pinault's offices on Boulevard de La Tour-Maubourg (in the former LVMH headquarters) have become a hive of activity, while Kroll is supposed to be monitoring Ford and De Sole like a shadow and reporting everything that is happening at Gucci, Bernard Arnault, for once, knows nothing, is not informed about anything, and has no suspicions. On March 18, he participates in a meeting with financial analysts, during which he reaffirms that he has no intention of launching a takeover bid for the entire capital of Gucci and is completely optimistic about the outcome of his operation."

"With François Pinault, the problem will not arise in the same terms since the French billionaire does not exist in the luxury industry. It is Joseph Perrella, former head of Wasserstein-Perrella bank, who first thinks of him and calls him from New York on February 23. As part of a European tour of potential white knights, Perrella arranges a meeting in early March at the Artémis headquarters on Boulevard de La Tour-Maubourg. Pinault asks Patricia Barbizet, CEO of his personal holding company, to attend the meeting. On these big occasions, the Breton boss relies on his intuition. He needs to feel Patricia's reactions, who he will later appoint as the chair of the supervisory board of PPR, because she is an intelligent, simple, and intuitive woman with a natural propensity to simplify problems rather than complicate them."

"Bernard Arnault, La Passion créative, entretiens avec Yves Messarovitch, Plon, 2000. Nadège Forestier et Nazanine Ravaï, Bernard Arnault ou le goût du pouvoir, Olivier Orban, 1990. Pierre-Angel Gay et Caroline Monnot, François Pinault milliardaire, les secrets d’une incroyable fortune, Balland, 1999. Sara Gay Forden, The House of Gucci, a Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour and Greed, HarperCollins, 2000. Christine Kerdellant, Les Nouveaux Condottieres, dix capitalistes des années Mitterrand, Calmann-Lévy, 1992. Patrick Lamm, Enquête sur l’affaire Boussac, Robert Laffont, 1985. Alexandre de Lur Saluces, La Morale d’Yquem, entretiens avec Jean-Paul Kauffmann, Grasset-Mollat, 1999. Stéphane Marchand, Les Guerres du luxe, Fayard, 2001. Jean-Marie Messier, Mon vrai journal, Balland, 2002. Michel Pinçon et Monique Pinçon-Charlot, Nouveaux patrons, nouvelles dynasties, Calmann-Lévy, 1999. Gisèle Prévost, Voyage au pays du luxe, Le Cherche Midi, 2001. Jean-Michel Quatrepoint, Histoire secrète des dossiers noirs de la gauche, Alain Moreau, 1986. Nazanine Ravaï, La République des vanités, petits et grands secrets du capitalisme français, Grasset, 1997. Hugh Sebag-Montefiore, King of the catwalks, LVMH affair, Chapmans, 1992. Olivier Toscer, Argent public, fortunes privées, Denoël, 2002. Claude Vincent et Philippe Monnin, Guerre du luxe, l’affaire LVMH, François Bourin, 1990."

"After which, unlike Bernard Tapie, François Pinault understands that if he wants to enter the big leagues, he will have to break with his past and buy himself a conduct. What took three generations in the 19th century is done in one life at the end of the 20th... He sidelines his former associates, moves away from the world of commercial courts, whitens himself by calling on Alain Mine for his advice, and Anne Méaux for his communication. On these new foundations, he will take over CFAO, SCOA, Conforama, Le Printemps, La Redoute, and FNAC. All exercises in high-flying, jumping from branch to branch between his different companies, to the great dismay of minority shareholders and relying on the generosity of Crédit Lyonnais..."

"This is what happened with Yves Saint Laurent. Pinault had been tempted by luxury diversification for a long time, and the Sanofi Beauté file had been presented to him. After studying it in 1998, he decides not to pursue it, deeming the price too high and, most importantly, lacking the right person to turn the business around. After spending a day at sea in Saint-Tropez on a boat rented by Arnault in July, Pinault makes his decision. He calls the boss of LVMH: "I have decided not to pursue it. I don't have the right people, but you do. I wanted to inform you, Bernard, so that you can do what you want." "François, thank you for letting me know," Arnault responds. This is how LVMH was able to conduct its exclusive negotiation with Sanofi, only to break it off at the last moment. The same thing happened with Château Cheval-Blanc. This first-classed growth of Bordeaux is for sale. All the major potential buyers have, of course, been contacted: Arnault, who controls Château-d'Yquem, Pinault, who owns Château-Latour, as well as Albert Frère, the biggest Belgian fortune, Liliane Bettencourt,"

"he takes over Isoroy, a company in decline resulting from the merger of three wood panel manufacturers, benefiting from a subsidy of 250 million francs and a tax exemption of the same amount. Second operation: the takeover of the newspaper paper manufacturer La Chapelle Darblay, one of the most important industrial disasters in the Republic, located near Le Havre, in the electoral stronghold of Laurent Fabius. The company has received, at a loss, more than 2.5 billion francs in subsidies in various forms. A Canadian buyer is found by Alain Madelin, Minister of Industry. He presents himself associated with François Pinault. The business is entrusted to them. Immediately, contrary to what was planned, François Pinault files for bankruptcy. The Canadian is marginalized. Creditors cry foul. The return to power of the socialists allows Pinault to oust the Canadian, who is not allowed to participate in a capital increase. And in 1990, La Chapelle Darblay will be sold to the Finnish company Kymmene for 1.3 billion francs. In the meantime, Pinault SA has arrogated its wood supplies..."

"In mid-June 1999, Pierre Godé asked Kroll France to verify if one of Kroll's offices in the United States had worked on the Executive Life Crédit Lyonnais case and if there were any exploitable information regarding François Pinault. This affair has been poisoning Franco-American relations since 1998. It all started with an anonymous denunciation by a French businessman. Crédit Lyonnais is accused of having set up, with the support of MAAF Assurances, a holding system to take over, in 1991, part of the assets of the bankrupt American insurance company Executive Life, particularly its heavily depreciated junk bond portfolio. However, American law at the time prohibited a bank from owning assets in the insurance sector."

"François Pinault personally took care of setting his own table and that of his wife, Maryvonne. At his table, there were, of course, the friendly presidential couple, Jacques and Bernadette, but also some of his old Breton friends, as well as Ambroise Roux and... Bernard and Hélène Arnault. "The godfather and the peer, the only ones in this assembly who, perhaps along with Albert Frère, he considers capable of competing with him," writes Nazanine Ravaï in La République des vanités. François Pinault and Bernard Arnault "follow each other's every move," she writes."

"The sale of Saint Laurent to Gucci will prove to be much more complicated than expected. To finalize the deal, François Pinault will have to separate Saint Laurent (ready-to-wear and accessories), sold to Gucci, from Saint Laurent Couture, which will be bought by his personal holding company, Artémis. The prestigious haute couture house will remain under the control of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé. After paying them 78 million euros to acquire all the rights to the brand, he guarantees them millions of euros in royalties on Saint Laurent perfume sales until... 2016! In addition, François Pinault commits to financing the deficits of the couture house until 2006, which amounts to 36.6 million euros in six payments, until 2006. This is how Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé will have sold their name for the second time: already, in 1993, when Saint Laurent was bought by Sanofi, they had received 300 million francs as compensation for renouncing their status as a limited partnership company. Finally, Pinault will close the door on the famous but expensive fashion house."

"PPR's blockade is due to a sudden veto from François Pinault. He too believes that Arnault is financially struggling. Above all, the use of an internal document in court, which could have been taken from the trash, has made him furious. He now knows where all the information circulating in France and England about Forest Product International, its relationship with John Ryan, and its past and present dealings with the tax authorities comes from. He knows who is stirring the pot in the conflict between France and the United States over the Executive Life file. "I will never sign an agreement with this thug," he tells his colleagues, lawyers, and visitors."

"Jean-Claude Taté, on the other hand, is not offended by this. This good-natured person is one of the few leaders who has had shareholders such as the Willot family, Bernard Arnault, and François Pinault. He believes that all of his successive shareholders have delegated their power to him and have shown respect for his independence. While he considers François Pinault to be much warmer than Bernard Arnault, he has found him to be just as demanding, and he does not complain about it."

"In addition to the official war, there is also a secret war. While they are battling, for now in vain, on the legal front, mobilizing international lawyers, LVMH's leaders will also resort to other methods to discredit their opponent. They will again use the services of Kroll Associates, but this time on a massive scale. The goal is no longer to quickly obtain usable information to identify the weaknesses of a target and better negotiate, but to extensively, widely, and deeply gather a considerable amount of information and documents on François Pinault. Once collected and analyzed, they will be provided to LVMH's top management. This vast intelligence operation will be carried out along two lines of work. On the one hand, documentary investigation, using databases, public archives, and confidential interviews with all kinds of people, including officials and journalists, allowing them to develop analyses, memos, and seek new leads. On the other hand, operational research, essentially trash digging, called black forests (forêts noires) in the terminology used in Anglo-Saxon agencies, carried out by a third-party English company. At no point in any of the documents we have been able to consult is there any trace of clearly illegal activities, such as unauthorized wiretaps, document theft in private premises, or home invasion."

""Pierre-Angel Gay and Caroline Monnot, François Pinault billionaire, the secrets of an incredible fortune, Balland, 1999.""

"To carry out this strategy, at the very moment when François Pinault came to trample his garden, he created Europ@ web, a holding company, also of Dutch law, responsible for overseeing most of the group's European internet activities, which he entrusted to Chahram Becharat, thirty-two years old, a precision intellectual mechanic trained at Polytechnique and Harvard, recruited a little earlier. He surrounded himself with about fifty young wolves who left their consulting firms and investment banks without looking back, trading their comfortable salaries for promises of capital gains. With a fund of 500 million euros (3.28 billion francs), Europ@ web will acquire about fifty "dotcoms". The methods are those that financial power allows in the face of excited and naive kids."

"During this negotiation, Bernard Arnault's emissaries made an unusual demand that they posed, for a moment, as a condition for signing the agreement and then as a token of goodwill: they simply asked that François Pinault obtain, from myself or my publisher, the interruption of the writing of this book!"

"Listing the number of brands that have ended up in French hands becomes a painful count for those who care about the entrepreneurial future of our country: Gucci, Brioni, Pomellato, and Bottega Veneta are owned by Kering di François Pinault, the archrival of Arnault, who recently also targeted Valentino, acquiring 30% with the option to buy the rest of the shares in the coming years. Bulgari, Loro Piana, Fendi, Acqua di Parma, Emilio Pucci are the Italian brands in the LVMH portfolio, which recently also bought a stake in the holding company of Remo Ruffini that controls Moncler."

""A haunted place. A carousel of ghosts," describes Bernard-Henri Lévy, who considers the Côtes-d'Armor industrialist as his second father. "François Pinault, at the opening two years ago of the Palazzo Grassi, exhibited his own skull X-rayed by Piotr Uklanski. Here, at the Customs House, he shows the ghosts that used to rage here."

"When businessman François Pinault bought Palazzo Grassi in 2005, he approached Antoine Bernheim to ask him to intercede with Cardinal Angelo Scola, patriarch of Venice, because he had set his sights on the tip of the Customs House. Two years after taking over the Grassi Palace from the Agnelli family, the Breton industrialist obtained this legendary place in Venice, also coveted by the Guggenheim Foundation."

"To achieve this, he benefited from the support of Antoine Bernheim, the all-powerful managing partner of Lazard Bank, during the period from 1967-2005, who carefully watched over his steps as he had done before with Bernard Arnault, Vincent Bolloré, and François Pinault."

"he became the historic mentor of industrialists Bernard Arnault and Vincent Bolloré, and to a lesser extent the advisor of François Pinault, as well as Nicolas Sarkozy, at least in his early years. He also counts among his European "protégés": Italian John Elkann, the heir to the Agnelli dynasty, or banker Gerardo Braggiotti, also a former Lazard associate."

"Two years after taking over the Grassi Palace from the Agnelli family, the Breton industrialist will obtain this mythical place in Venice, also coveted by the Guggenheim Foundation. "A haunted place. A carousel of ghosts," describes Bernard-Henri Lévy, who considers the industrialist from Côtes-d'Armor as his second father. "François Pinault, during the opening two years ago of the Palazzo Grassi, displayed his own skull radiographed by Piotr Uklanski. Here, at the Customs of the Sea, he shows the ghosts that made a storm there. The Carpaccio of the Ten Thousand Crucifixions on Mount Ararat, resurrected by the Chapman brothers in their evocation of Auschwitz and Nazism.""

"The thesis of the left-wing alter-globalist magazine is relatively simple: when the leader of the Italian right is openly the owner of newspapers and television channels, the leader of the UMP exercises indirect, and therefore necessarily more "insidious," control of information through his friends who are media tycoon shareholders. But the underlying tactic of power would be the same. Politis lists: "Martin Bouygues (with TF1), the Dassault family (with Le Figaro, Valeurs actuelles...), Bernard Arnault (Les Echos, Investir, Radio Classique), the one who presents him as his 'brother': Arnaud Lagardère (Europe 1, Paris-Match, Le Journal du dimanche, Elle...), or even the Chirac sympathizer François Pinault (Le Point), Jean-Claude Dassier (who became president of Olympique de Marseille after having led the LCI newsroom)...." Forming an impressive network of influence."