| Headline: Arnault and Pinault call a truce – for now Source: Euromoney Date: October 2001 Francois Pinault, chairman of retail group Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) and Bernard Arnault, chief executive of luxury products company LVMH-Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton are sparring again. “I wouldn’t say they hate each other but they aren’t exactly close,” says a French corporate financier. “As far as I know they haven’t spoken to each other for more than a year even though they have many friends in common.” Despite different backgrounds – Arnault studied mathematics at the elite Ecole de Polytechnique, Pinault was a school drop-out – they have much in common. Both worked for their fathers in their 20s, Arnault for Ferret-Savinel, the family-owned construction and real-estate business, Pinault for Bois du Nord, a wood producer. Both have wine interests: Arnault owns Chateau d’Yquem, Pinault owns Chateau Latour. Both have a talent for spotting, and then turning around, loss-making conglomerates. Arnault’s big break came in 1983 when, using Ferret-Savinel as collateral, he bought Boussac Saint Frères, a state-owned textiles company that owned Christian Dior. Four years later he sold the firm’s textiles operations and used the money to part finance the establishment of the Christian Lacroix fashion label and then LVMH. |