French AMF Resists LV'S Acquisition Of Hermes

2011/1/15 13:56:00 73

Whereas

Louis Vuitton

Recently, its holdings in Hermes increased to more than 20%.

Hermes

Most of the shareholders of the family decided to establish a holding company last month to collect more than 50% of the Hermes family heirs and have a preemptive right to the shares held directly by the Hermes family.

The newly established holding company has been approved by the French financial market regulator for the purpose of defeating Louis Weedon's attempt to acquire Hermes holdings.

However, the establishment of a holding company needs an exemption from AMF, that is, there is no need to make a comprehensive offer to other small shareholders.

A commercial lawyer who did not want to be named said that this is a solid defensive wall, and the decision also means that the defensive wall can be reinforced.

Hermes shares fell 1.9% yesterday to 155.05 euros.

At this price, the market value of Hermes is 16 billion 330 million euros (US $21 billion 500 million).

Including Dumas, Puech and Guerrand

Family heir

The Hermes family has a 73.4% stake, but not all family shareholders have joined the holding company.

It is not clear at the moment that the number of family shareholders who refuse to hand over shares to the holding company is unclear.

The Hermes group only indicated that the holding company already owned more than 50% of the shares, but did not disclose the specific size of the shareholding.

However, ADAM, a small shareholder Association, has said it is likely to appeal against the decision.

Louis Weedon declined to comment.