The 80yearold Hermès heir wants to adopt the 51yearold gardener in order to leave him a billiondollar fortune
Photo: Reproduction/El País
O Heir to Hermès, Nicolas PuechThe 80yearold announced this wants to adopt his former gardener and “craftsman” in order to leave him his fortuneestimated at approx R$56 billion. A Luxury brandwhich sells products to celebrities such as Madonna and Nicole Kidman, has existed for almost two centuries, earns 11.6 billion euros (R61.3 billion) annually and is worth 202 billion euros (R1 trillion) on the stock market.
Although he no longer actively sits on the brand’s board, Nicolas owns 5.7% of the company after stepping down from that position in 2014. According to the international press, LVMH tried to take control of the company in 2010, but the heirs of the founding family decided to create a holding company to prevent the takeover. Puech was the only one who did not join and maintained his actions.
This means the older man has an estimated fortune of 9 to 10 billion Swiss francs (9.5 to 10.6 billion euros or around R$56 billion), making him one of the richest men in Switzerland, according to Bilan magazine. According to the El País website, he currently lives in a luxurious villa in La Fouly, a municipality with just 66 residents.
And this is exactly the legacy he wants to leave to his former gardener, a 51yearold man “from a modest Moroccan family,” whose name is not disclosed.
On December 1, Swiss media reported that due to his advanced age and lack of children, the tycoon had sent a letter to his lawyer in October last year to settle his inheritance situation. At the mission, Nicolas asked the gardener, who is married to a Spanish woman and has two children, to adopt him.
“In Switzerland, adopting an adult is not impossible, but it is unusual,” emphasizes the newspaper Tribune de Genéve. According to El País, the process is still ongoing, but if successful, the beneficiary could inherit “at least half” of Peuch’s assets.
However, Puech reportedly signed a succession agreement with the Genevabased Isocrates Foundation in 2011 to donate his assets to the institution upon his death. However, in a February 2023 handwritten note read by the Swiss daily, the billionaire “changed course” and stated that he “intends to make other will arrangements,” without specifying the reasons for his change of mind.
The foundation told the AFP news agency that it had just learned of its former president’s wish to cancel the succession agreement, but was not aware of any alternative agreement.
After learning of the decision, the Foundation’s Secretary General, Nicolas Borsinger, in a press conference with the Swiss press, described the situation as a “sudden and unilateral cancellation of a successor agreement made through an act that must be considered void.” .”
“The foundation regrets that ‘its activities for the common good’ are ‘endangered in their sustainability’ by circumstances ‘completely beyond its control,'” he said.
Although the case has global implications, the alleged gardener remains silent and anonymous. According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he will be able to collect around 40 million euros per year through dividends alone.
Source: Redação Terra