Hermès Heir Pulls LVMH’s Bernard Arnault into €14B Fight Over Missing Shares

Nicolas Puech, a fifth-generation Hermès heir, is looking to pull LVMH head Bernard Arnault into a web of legal proceedings over €14 billion worth of missing Hermès shares, potentially reviving a long-running rivalry between the luxury goods giants. Puech filed a civil lawsuit in Paris this spring, alleging he was unlawfully stripped of Hermès shares. His lawsuit personally targets LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, along with two of his family offices (Agache and Financière Agache), and several Swiss entities linked to the late Swiss wealth manager Éric Freymond.

Filed in May, Puech’s civil suit comes more than a decade after LVMH stunned Hermès’ leadership by quietly acquiring a 23 percent stake in the Birkin bag maker. That acquisition triggered years of legal and regulatory battles and eventually resulted in LVMH relinquishing its shares in Hermès to its shareholders and institutional investors (a transaction completed in December 2014).

Now, Puech has set his sights on Arnault in a bid to claim damages equivalent to the value of the shares from “whoever may be found guilty of criminal charges” in a separate ongoing criminal investigation concerning the alleged disappearance of his fortune. Puech alleges that 6 million shares – representing 5.8 percent of the company – were transferred out of his name without his consent.

LVMH denied the allegations in a statement, characterizing them as a “clearly coordinated press campaign,” and saying, “LVMH and its (controlling) shareholder firmly reaffirm that they never, at any time, misappropriated shares of Hermes International, in any way whatsoever or without anyone’s knowledge, and that they do not hold any ‘hidden’ shares, contrary to what Mr. Nicolas Puech suggests.”

Counsel for the parties appeared in court in Paris on November 20 for an initial hearing.

A Transatlantic Legal Battle

The case unfolds alongside an ongoing criminal case in France that Puech initiated in 2024 and a sealed civil suit in U.S. federal court, both centering on the same missing shares. Together, the proceedings raise broader questions about ownership, control, and the opaque structures that shape legacy brands.

In the U.S. case, Qatar-backed investment firm Honor America Capital LLC is suing Puech over a failed deal to acquire the shares. The company alleges that it had a binding agreement with Puech in February 2025, fully financed by the Emir of Qatar, to purchase the stake. But after multiple delays, Puech’s lawyer reneged on the deal, informing HAC in March that he could not deliver the shares – because he no longer had access to them. HAC is seeking specific performance or over $1.3 billion in damages.

The Mystery of the Vanishing Shares

The roots of the dispute go back to the early 2000s, when shares believed to belong to Puech began to disappear from his accounts. A decade later, Puech opted out of the H51 family holding company – a structure created by Hermès heirs to fend off takeover threats. By staying outside the pact, Puech’s holdings were left exposed just as LVMH was quietly building its stake.

For years, Puech allowed Freymond broad authority over his finances. According to legal filings, that included signing blank documents and routing bank mail through Freymond’s office. A confidential chart submitted in French proceedings shows Puech’s holdings shrinking from 6 million shares in 1999 to zero by 2020. By 2012, he was reportedly voting at Hermès shareholder meetings using borrowed shares.

Swiss courts have so far been unsympathetic. In July 2024, a Geneva appellate court ruled that Freymond acted within the scope of his mandate, rejecting Puech’s claims. Freymond had denied any wrongdoing before his death, and his lawyers maintained that decades of documentation supported his actions.

Meanwhile, Hermès management shed some light on the shares recently, with Executive Chairman Axel Dumas saying in a July earnings call, “I have known for a long time that Nicolas Puech no longer holds his shares. That is why we started legal proceedings.” Dumas added that the company does not expect to recover the missing stake.

The Paris civil case preserves Puech’s right to seek damages from any party found criminally liable in the future, an effort that could draw Arnault further into the matter depending on the outcome of the ongoing probe.