France’s billionaire Arnault family is reinforcing its grip on LVMH by simplifying the holding companies through which it controls the world’s leading luxury group. The goal of the operation is “to ensure the continuity of [Arnault family] control over LVMH”, family holding company Christian Dior SE said in a statement.

Once completed, the operation would centralise the 49.76 per cent of the family’s shareholding and 65.55 per cent of its voting rights in LVMH in a single holding company. Two layers of family holdings would be merged into Christian Dior SE, which would then be renamed Agache and converted into a société en commandite par actions, a French joint-stock ownership structure often used by dynastic families.

The move by billionaire Bernard Arnault, 77, is his latest bid to fortify his family’s hold over LVMH, the owner of Louis Vuitton and Tiffany. It is the biggest reorganisation of the family’s complicated ownership structures since 2022, when he transformed a family holding into an SCA that binds each of his children to an equal vote and unanimity on critical decisions.

An extraordinary meeting of Christian Dior SE’s shareholders is expected to take place in December to sign off on the transaction. A tender for the 2.44 per cent of minority shares the family does not own would be launched in the first quarter of 2027, subject to approval by French regulators.