The board of Dior has completed the personnel changes
Dior has rushed to replace two independent directors as part of the Arnault family's equity restructuring plan.
Dior has quickly made big changes to the members of its board of directors.
The famous French luxury brand Dior announced changes of its board members on October 7. The original directors Nicolas Bazire and Maria Luisa Loro Piana have officially resigned from the board and have been replaced by two new external professionals. The new board members have extremely strong professional backgrounds. Xavier Musca has extensive banking experience and has served at the Credit Agricole, proficient in capital operations and equity structure management. Tony Estanguet once led the work of the organizing committee for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The Arnault family is about to promote the integration of its core assets. Dior, as a key entity, needs to adapt to the new governance team. The professional capabilities of the new directors can better handle subsequent mergers, tender offers, and other capital operations. The early reshuffling of the board of directors sends a clear signal. The group's capital operation has entered the practical stage, and the professional new team can largely reduce operational and compliance risks during the restructuring process and stabilize investors' confidence in their holdings.
The original equity structure was highly concentrated.
The control rights of Dior and LVMH were completely in the hands of the Arnault family, who achieved unified management through their subsidiary Agache. Before the reorganization, Agache held an absolute controlling position in terms of equity. The data showed that before the reorganization, Agache held 96% of Dior's shares, corresponding to a voting right of up to 97.1%.
At the same time, Agache directly held some equity interests of LVMH, including 8.49% of the shares and 6.77% of the voting rights. This decentralized and nested structure has long affected the valuations of the two listed companies. The core purpose of this reorganization is to simplify the equity chain and make the asset ownership and income distribution more transparent.
A new equity structure has been established, and the scattered circulating shares in the market have been cleared.
The core action of this capital integration is the merger of Dior and Agache. The entire transaction is expected to be completed officially in December this year. The progress is clear and the implementation is very strong. After the merger, the new Agache Group will directly hold 49.76% of LVMH's shares and have 65.55% of the voting rights. The control of the global top luxury giant LVMH by the Arnault family has been largely strengthened, and the decision-making efficiency has been further improved.
For the 2.44% of Dior's circulating shares that Agache has not yet held, the group will launch a comprehensive acquisition to completely clear the external scattered shares. The acquisition price will not be fixed in advance. The Arnault family will calculate the offer price based on the real-time stock price of LVMH. This pricing method can effectively avoid pricing disputes, reduce transaction resistance, and lower compliance risks. In the future, Dior is likely to no longer exist as an independent core listed entity.
This board re-election combined with the equity restructuring has brought long-term benefits to the stocks of Dior and LVMH. All the issues that the market previously worried about, such as multiple layers of shareholding losses and cumbersome decision-making processes, have been resolved. The governance discount of the luxury goods group will gradually be restored, driving the valuation of these two leading stocks to rise. At the same time, the absolute control of the family has been further strengthened, and the stability of the equity has been maximized, which can effectively resist short-term fluctuations in the stock market and reduce the volatility of stock prices.