Nicolas Puech, the 80-year-old descendant of Thierry Hermès—who founded French luxury giant Hermes International SCA in 1837—has decided to leave his half of fortune to his former gardener, setting off a public spat with the foundation his family created.
According to Swiss media reports, Puech has initiated the legal process of adopting his former 50-year-old unnamed gardener and plans to leave him half of his 12bn euros (£10.3bn) fortune.
The family emerged this month as the world’s third wealthiest in Bloomberg’s annual ranking of family fortunes.
Nothing much revealed about the unnamed heir
Nothing much has been revealed about this gardener, except that the man is of Moroccan origins and is married with two children. Local media reports state that Puech refers to them as his “children” and “adopted son”.
However, the decision has been vehemently opposed by the Isocrates Foundation—which has a board of six including Puech as president—which has announced that it will “oppose” its founder’s decision to cancel the inheritance contract.
It is believed that Puech owns about 5.7 per cent of Hermès’ shares.
Trust opposes move
On Tuesday (Dec 19), the foundation said that it “isn’t in a position to judge the process or context” of the reports that Puech wished to adopt his former employee.
“From a legal standpoint, the abrupt and unilateral annulment of a succession agreement appears void and unfounded,” the foundation said in a statement.
“The foundation has opposed this move while leaving the door open to discussion with its founder and president.”
The foundation was referring to a 2011 agreement it had with Puech, who has no children, to fund “the protection and promotion of public debate”.
The foundation said it was established to fund and support “public interest journalism and media organisations committed to strengthening the field of investigative journalism” and civil society organisations “working towards responsible digitalisation and a healthy digital public space”.
It added that as a Switzerland-based charity, it is “under the authority and surveillance of Swiss Federal supervisory board for foundations”.
The move by Puech adds another twist to the long-running saga of the Hermes descendant, who alleged to have betrayed his family when he failed to join dozens of relatives, led by his brother Bertrand Puech, in pooling their Hermes shares to tighten control over the firm and repel Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, which had stealthily acquired a stake.
