Francois Pinault
| François Pinault | |
|---|---|
François Pinault in 2015
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| Born |
21 August 1936 Les Champs-Géraux, Côtes d'Armor, Brittany, France |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Net worth | US$13.8 billion (Pinault family) (September 2015) |
| Spouse(s) | Maryvonne Pinault (m. 1970) |
| Children | François-Henri Pinault |
François Pinault (born 21 August 1936) is a French businessman and art collector. He is the major shareholder and honorary chairman of the retail company Kering.
François Pinault was born on 21 August 1936 in Les Champs-Géraux, a commune in the north of Brittany.
His holding company Artemis S.A., owns (or owned), among others, Converse shoes, Samsonite luggage, Château Latour, the Vail Ski Resort in Colorado, and Christie's auction house. Artemis also owns Executive Life Insurance Company (now Aurora Life) in California, which was sued by policy holders when the company failed.
He led Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) through a long battle over control of Gucci, the Italian fashion house, which began with an attempted takeover of Gucci by LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods company. In March 1999, Gucci asked PPR to acquire an ownership interest in Gucci to help fend off LVMH. The result was a struggle between the two richest men in France, both self-made billionaires — Pinault and Bernard Arnault, the Chairman of LVMH. The dispute ended in September 2001, when LVMH agreed to sell its shares in Gucci to PPR for $94 a share. As part of the agreement, PPR promised to tender for the balance of the publicly traded shares at a later date. It completed that buy-in in July 2004 and took full control of Gucci.
In 1998, he purchased a majority share of Christie's auction house. In February 2000, A. Alfred Taubman, majority shareholder of rival company Sotheby's stepped down amid a scandal after the Federal Bureau of Investigation had investigated commission-fixing between the two companies. Pinault was not implicated, but rather it was his actions which precipitated the scandal. He fired Christie's CEO Christopher Davidge over an allegation of extravagant spending. Davidge then admitted the collusion, which had gone on since about 1995, to Artemis CEO Patricia Barbizet.
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