At the time, nobody knows who sold the shares to Bernard, but this last-minute defection, however expected, casts a chill and gives a serious clue.

But it is the AMF that provides the answer in its report: Nicolas Puech allegedly sold 8.8M shares to intermediaries working for Bernard, before they were hidden away through a financial instrument, equity-linked swaps, set up by Nexgen (an Irish subsidiary of Natixis), Société Générale and Crédit Agricole CIB.

An ELS is a forward contract in which one party gets the performance of an equity investment in exchange for interest. At the end, the seller hands the gain to the buyer if the share price has gone up, otherwise the buyer pays the difference. Settlement can be in cash… or in shares.

But of course, from day one Bernard wanted the shares. And since he didn’t technically own them, he had no need to tell the AMF, because he wasn’t crossing any threshold.

Yet the shares had indeed been acquired as early as 2001, they were just very well hidden.

Originally, the ELS were due to unwind in 2010 or 2011, but several were extended. In mid-2010, Pierre Dehen, who runs Bernard’s holding company, asks the three banks whether there is any way to get the shares back. LVMH hires Lazard, which had known for 2 years. Two days later, Bernard calls Puech, announces it to the LVMH board, then to the AMF for crossing the thresholds.

Following the report, the AMF convenes its enforcement committee, which slaps LVMH with an €8M fine for getting round the rules to sneak into Hermès’s capital.

Without anyone really knowing who had sold shares, apart from Nicolas Puech.