It’s a small victory for South African billionaire Johann Rupert. By an overwhelming majority, Wednesday, September 7, the general meeting of shareholders of the luxury group Richemont, which he founded in 1988 and has chaired since then with an iron fist, rejected Bluebell Capital’s proposal to appoint Francesco Trapani to its board of directors. In a press release following this meeting, Mr. Rupert emphasized “his deep gratitude” to all shareholders. But, for the world number two in luxury, behind the French LVMH, “It’s a wake-up call”warns Christophe Laborde, financial analyst in Geneva at the Bordier & Cie bank.
Since July, the London activist fund Bluebell has been campaigning for a change in governance within the group known for its Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels brands. Chaired by Mr. Rupert, the general meeting, which took place on the shores of Lake Geneva, in Geneva, was “unpleasant”relates to World Giuseppe Bivona, co-founder of Bluebell Capital, lamenting “unreasonable arrogance” and the “bullying” of the chairman of the session who, according to him, prevented him from expressing himself. However, this former banker at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley knew how much the battle was lost in advance. This time the fund who, in France, made himself known by overthrowing the boss of Danone Emmanuel Faber in March 2021, “had no chance of seeing [ses] successful proposals »he acknowledges.
Entry into the capital in 2021, the investment company is campaigning for the Richemont group’s board of directors to represent the holders of A shares. These securities make up 90.1% of its capital, but offer fewer voting rights than the B, held by the Rupert family holding company with 9.1% of the capital and granting it 51% of the voting rights.
” Conflict of interest “
As such, on July 20, Bluebell Capital had revealed that it wanted to bring in its former managing director Mr. Trapani, praising his experience in the jewelery sector; this 65-year-old Italian, descendant of the founder of Bulgari, was boss of this subsidiary of LMVH, before returning to Tiffany and being dismissed, in December 2019, the day after the takeover offer from the New York jeweler by Bernard Arnault’s group. According to Bluebell executives, he would have had ” a lot “ to bring to the group whose sales reached 19.1 billion euros in turnover in its last financial year ended at the end of March.
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