Arnault's sons received 1 billion each in dividends

The luxury sector might be in crisis but not its owners. The founder and president of LVMH, Bernard Arnault and his five children, all employed in managerial positions within the luxury empire, have each received one billion euros in dividends from the family company, Financière Agache, which controls LVMH. According to Il Corriere della Sera, a dividend of such magnitude represents the largest cash distribution from ordinary business management in the past 15 years, but it is actually only a fraction of what the Arnaults already own. Financière Agache, not listed on the stock exchange, controls Christian Dior, which in turn gives the Arnaults control over 42% of LVMH, with the family collectively owning 48% of the company with over 60% of the voting rights. According to Il Corriere della Sera, the billion-euro mega dividend distributed among Bernard Arnault and his children was taken from Financière Agache's cash reserves, which amount to 15.5 billion euros according to the latest financial statement and could theoretically also be distributed to the family if circumstances required. The holding company achieved a net result of 2.55 billion euros in 2023, derived mainly from dividends from Christian Dior SE and LVMH. 

The governance of the holding company, a cornerstone of the family's financial power, was revised two years ago with the creation of Agache Commandité, which includes Arnault's five children: from the eldest, Delphine, to Antoine, Alexandre, Frédéric, and the youngest Jean, who is only 25 years old and has a staggering bank account compared to his peers around the world. The net result of Financière Agache for 2023 was 2.55 billion euros, up from 2.45 billion in 2022, mainly from dividends received from Dior and LVMH. Recently, Frédéric, the fourth child, was appointed managing director of Financière Agache. According to the latest provisions, in the partnership only the five siblings can be partners and none can sell their share until 2052 – a move that essentially prevents the entire family from exiting but also from opening the business to outsiders. In the Financière Agache partnership, only the siblings can be partners and cannot sell until 2052, while the founder remains at the helm as an administrator with unlimited powers until the age of 95. On the Forbes billionaire index, Bernard Arnault is always cited together with the phrase “and family” following the equal division of the group among his children. Overall, with a net worth of about 193 billion dollars, the French dynasty is richer than Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth is around 187 billion. 

Who knows if the dividend will continue to rise in the coming years. It is already widely known that, besides the sponsorship of the Olympics, which is filling and will continue to fill the family coffers, LVMH has started to expand into entertainment and push even harder into tourism. But this week there have been rumors that LVMH might replace Rolex as a sponsor in Formula 1 circuits while just last month, Bernard Arnault personally purchased a small stake in his rival Richemont, which in the latest quarterly results showed the first signs of a growth slowdown. At the same time, LVMH announced the acquisition of Swiza, the Swiss company that owns L'Epée 1839, a producer of high-end watches.