Bernard Arnault, Chairman and Chief Executive, LVMH.

LVMH Moët Hennessy Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault has struck a deal to buy roughly 25% of Arnaud Lagardère’s holding company Lagardère Capital & Management (LC&M).

Via the holding company, Group Managing Partner Arnaud Lagardère owns a 7.26% stake in media conglomerate Lagardère SCA, parent of Lagardère Travel Retail.

“This linkup will strengthen the corporate structure and financial capacities of LCM,” read a joint statement. “The family groups led by Bernard Arnault and Arnaud Lagardère will act in concert with regard to Lagardère SCA.”

The agreement is subject to conditions. On completion of the planned transactions, the parties will make obligatory declarations to the French financial markets authority (Autorité des marchés financiers).

Arnaud Lagardère commented: “I am happy and proud of this link-up with Groupe Arnault. We have long shared the values of family entrepreneurship.

“Groupe Arnault’s exceptional achievements in France and worldwide, its success in the field of distribution and its investment in the creative and cultural industries, are aligned with the fundamentals of my Group and are the mark of an enduring and productive working relationship.”

Bernard Arnault added: “I have welcomed Arnaud Lagardère’s proposal to join forces with him. My friendship with Jean-Luc Lagardère brought our families together, and I have the utmost respect for the group that he built. I am delighted that we are now, alongside Arnaud Lagardère, a long-term shareholder of the company that bears his name.”

The development is an interesting one and follows a recent attempt by leading shareholder Amber Capital to replace Lagardère’s supervisory board, the proposal of which was rejected at the Annual Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meeting of Lagardère SCA on 5 May.