French luxury tycoon bullish on Macron reforms

Bloomberg

French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault is optimistic about the country’s new president, but he’s worried about the global economy. The chief executive officer of LVMH visited a technology fair in Paris where he mingled with startup founders and shook hands with 39-year-old President Emmanuel Macron, saying he is “very happy” with the new leader.
Macron, who’s set to consolidate his election victory last month with a clear majority in the National Assembly, is a “new power that will reform France and contribute to give more strength to Europe as a whole,” Arnault said in a Bloomberg TV interview.
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, which sells luxury goods ranging from Dior perfume to Dom Perignon Champagne, surpassed oil giant Total SA last month to become France’s biggest company by market capitalization. The company has recently stepped up its digital efforts, launching a multi-brand e-commerce site called 24Sevres.com. It also served as a sponsor of the tech fair.
Walking through the sprawling event, Arnault met entrepreneurs including Anders Bringdal and Alain Thebault, the founders of SeaBubbles SAS, a startup that wants to build flying river taxis. “We want to show it’s possible for large companies to be close to startups and help them,” Arnault said.
Arnault and LVMH Chief Digital Officer Ian Rogers, a former Apple Inc. music executive, presented an award to Paris-based artificial intelligence startup Heuritech SAS, whose image-recognition software finds and tags fashion products to identify trends online. About 30 companies participated in the luxury giant’s tech hub at the fair.
“We want to show it’s possible for large companies to be close to startups and help them,” Arnault said. Arnault wasn’t the only business leader at the event to express optimism about Macron’s election. The new president’s pledge to reinvigorate the country’s sluggish economy and shake up its rigid labor market has drawn support from tech entrepreneurs.