LVMH's Dior Recruits Miu Miu CEO as Managing Director

FILE PHOTO: A logo of fashion house Dior is seen outside a shop in Paris, France, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Manon Cruz/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A logo of fashion house Dior is seen outside a shop in Paris, France, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Manon Cruz/File Photo
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LVMH's Dior Recruits Miu Miu CEO as Managing Director

FILE PHOTO: A logo of fashion house Dior is seen outside a shop in Paris, France, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Manon Cruz/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A logo of fashion house Dior is seen outside a shop in Paris, France, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Manon Cruz/File Photo

Christian Dior Couture has recruited Benedetta Petruzzo, the CEO of Prada's fast growing Miu Miu label, as its managing director, the LVMH-owned brand said on Tuesday.
The move comes over a year and a half after Delphine Arnault, the eldest child of LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, took the helm at Dior and as it grapples with the fallout of a judicial probe in Italy into working conditions at subcontractors.
Petruzzo will be responsible for product teams at Dior, including supply chain teams, reporting to Delphine Arnault, LVMH said on LinkedIn. Her recruitment, effective Oct. 15, was first reported by trade publication WWD, according to Reuters.
Petruzzo replaces Charles Delapalme, a rising star at LVMH who has also held prominent positions at the group's Fendi and Louis Vuitton labels. "Important new responsibilities" for Delapalme will be announced at a later date, LVMH said.
Petruzzo, a former Bain consultant, worked at Kering's eyewear business for five years before joining Prada as general manager of Miu Miu in February 2020.
Prada has outshone luxury rivals during the recent downturn, including in China, where shoppers are pulling back on high end purchases amid a property crisis. It has seen soaring growth at Miu Miu, whose creative director is Miuccia Prada.
LVMH in July pledged to speed up its supply chain strategy and strengthen audits and controls while increasing control over production at Dior, LVMH's second largest label after Louis Vuitton, following the probe in Italy, made public in June.
That investigation prompted Italy's competition authority to look into whether fashion labels Armani and Dior had misled consumers, while Europe's top asset manager Amundi and other investors asked LVMH to take stronger steps to monitor its suppliers' treatment of workers.
All five of Bernard Arnault's children hold important management positions in the sprawling luxury empire.



Nike Shares Jump as Ackman’s Return Sparks Turnaround Hopes

The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Nike (NKE) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 12, 2016. (Reuters)
The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Nike (NKE) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 12, 2016. (Reuters)
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Nike Shares Jump as Ackman’s Return Sparks Turnaround Hopes

The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Nike (NKE) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 12, 2016. (Reuters)
The logo of Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index listed company Nike (NKE) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 12, 2016. (Reuters)

Nike shares gained nearly 4% on Thursday as investors hoped the return of billionaire William Ackman as a stakeholder could spark a turnaround at the sportswear giant that has been battling with strategy missteps and tough competition.

Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management now owns roughly 3 million shares of Nike, amounting to a stake of about 0.19%, a filing showed on Wednesday. He has not revealed any plans for the investment yet.

"He's going to have the ear of the executives at Nike and be able to lend some influence on maybe how to get the ship righted, as it were, for Nike at this point in time to try and find their way back home," said Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, which owned $25.79 million worth of Nike shares as of June.

The stock has lost nearly a third of its value this year and the company has forecast a drop in annual sales for fiscal 2025, leading some Wall Street analysts and investors to raise the possibility of a management shake-up including CEO John Donahoe.

When an activist investor comes in, the ultimate goal "will be replacing the person that sits in the corner office," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.

"And I say that because the template for that has been very clear this week in the form of Starbucks."

Starbucks poached Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol earlier this week, tapping the industry veteran behind the burrito chain's turnaround to revitalize growth at its coffee outlets.

Niccol joining Chipotle in 2018 was also the result of one of Ackman's pressure campaigns that have often led to CEO changes at companies including J.C. Penney and Air Products and Chemicals.

Ackman last invested in Nike in late 2017, around the time when the company was losing market share in North America to a reinvigorated Adidas.

He exited Nike a few months later in 2018, making roughly $100 million in profit by cashing out of the 0.71% stake - a rare passive investment for the billionaire investor.

Analysts and investors hinted on Thursday it might be early days for Ackman's second stint as an investor at Nike and he will need to build a larger stake to make an impact.

Nike's forward price-to-earnings ratio for the next 12 months, a common benchmark for valuing stocks, was 24.26, compared with Adidas' 36.75.