LVMH’s Arnault brushes off succession question

PARIS (Reuters) – Bernard Arnault, the boss of luxury giant LVMH and the world’s richest man, brushed away questions about his succession with a joke on Thursday.

The 73-year old earlier this month reshuffled top management at his luxury goods empire, tightening his family’s grip with the appointment of his daughter Delphine to lead Christian Dior, and naming a new boss for Louis Vuitton.

Asked by an analyst about succession plans at a post-results conference where his children featured prominently in the front row, Arnault said: “You will have noticed that the retirement age is being raised.”

France is in the middle of a pension reform that would increase the age for retiring to 64 from 62 currently, and is being fiercely opposed by unions.

(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer and Silvia Aloisi)