LVMH names Arnault heir to lead Moet Hennessy alongside veteran CFO
Alexandre Arnault named deputy CEO of Moet Hennessy
Veteran CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony to head division
Moet Hennessy has underperformed rest of luxury group
Adds additional background in paragraphs 7-8
By Mimosa Spencer and Dominique Patton
Nov 14 (Reuters) -LVMH LVMH.PA owner Bernard Arnault has given his son Alexandre, who has links with the Trump family, the job of helping to turn around the group's wine and spirits business, a task that could be more difficult if the new U.S. president follows through on threatened import tariffs.
Alexandre Arnault, 32, one of the LVMH's billionaire owner's five children, will become deputy CEO of the division, where he will work with veteran finance chief Jean-Jacques Guiony.
The reshuffle comes as the group seeks to reverse a slump in the wine and spirits business in the United States and China.
Alexandre Arnault is known to have friendly relations with the Trump family, and was hosted for dinner with his wife Geraldine at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence last year.
"He is a young man on the move, the son of one of the great businessmen and leaders in Europe, and in the World," Trump posted on social media platform X in February last year.
Alexandre Arnault will leave the group's U.S.-based jewellery label Tiffany & Co., where he has been executive vice president of product, communications and industrial, to take up his new role from Feb. 1.
At Tiffany, he helped to oversee a broad brand reset of the U.S. jewellery retailer, including the revamp of its Fifth Avenue flagship in New York City, a push into higher priced products and refocusing marketing on its historic "Bird on a Rock" brooch.
Arnault was previously in charge of Rimowa, where he created a buzz around the luggage maker's wheeled suitcases through tie-ups with fashion brands.
Guiony, who has been CFO of LVMH for 20 years, becomes president and CEO of Moet Hennessy also from Feb. 1, while his current deputy, Cecile Cabanis, will take up the chief finance officer role for the group.
Sales at the wine and spirits division have been hit by a slump in its key U.S. and Chinese markets, lagging other activities in LVMH's luxury goods empire, which spans high-end labels from Louis Vuitton fashions to Moet & Chandon champagne. They dropped 8% over the first nine months of the year, making it the group's worst-performing business.
The division's cognac business has been caught up in a trade spat between Europe and China, with Beijing imposing duties on European brandy imports.
In addition to his role as CFO, Guiony is known for overseeing the transformation of the group's La Samaritaine department store into central Paris complex that includes a Cheval Blanc hotel and restaurants - a fifteen-year project that faced resistance from local authorities.
Outgoing Moet Hennessy CEO Philippe Schaus, who spent 21 years at LVMH, will support the new team in the first half of 2025, the company said, adding that he has decided to focus on non-executive roles.
LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault has been reshuffling the upper echelons of the group, as a new generation gradually replaces retiring executives and his children move up the ranks.
Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro, Dominique Patton and Mimosa Spencer; Editing by Varun H K, Tomasz Janowski, Mark Potter and Jane Merriman
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