Hermès Billionaire Decides To Leave His Fortune To Former Gardener

One of the descendants of the Hermès luxury handbag empire decided to leave half of his €12 billion (£10.3 billion) fortune to his unnamed former gardener.

Nicolas Puech, 80, is unmarried and has no children. He decided to adopt his 51-year-old gardener by designating him as his rightful heir. Puech is the fifth-generation descendant of Thierry Hermès, who founded Hermès in 1837. He has already started legal proceedings to give away most of his fortune.

He has a significant stake in the firm, which is valued at around $220 billion. He is considered one of the wealthiest individuals in Switzerland. A report in the Guardian said that he owns around 5.7% of Hermès shares.

According to a report in the New York Post, the gardener is married and lives with his family in Spain.

But why is he doing it?

The company has not released a formal statement addressing the issue, but some reports have claimed that it has something to do with a legal battle he was involved in with his family in 2014.

It happened after LVMH, a rival luxury conglomerate, acquired a significant stake in Hermès in a hostile takeover bid. Puech left the supervisory board for Hermès.

"He resigned because he has felt for several years beleaguered by members of his family, who have attacked him on several fronts, not only regarding LVMH," a spokesperson for Puech said at the time.

"He has had some very bad experiences and felt very badly and felt harshly criticised on numerous occasions, even while he is very attached to Hermès."

However, the plan has initiated another legal battle for Puech. According to a succession agreement, he had agreed to fund "the protection and promotion of public debate" of a charity he set up in 2011.

The charity called the Isocrates Foundation has opposed Puech's decisions and said that "from a legal standpoint, the abrupt and unilateral annulment of a succession agreement appears void and unfounded".

"The foundation has opposed this move, while leaving the door open to discussion with its founder and president," it added.

Meanwhile, Puech's lawyer has said that he might hold a press conference "to separate the fact from the fiction and to dispel some of the nonsense that has been reported in the media".

It also needs to be noted that adopting an adult is a very complex process in Switzerland. However, an adult can adopt another adult if the adoptee lived with the person when they were still a minor.