Most countries no longer let firms build up unseen stakes
多数国家不再放任公司秘密增持股份
Jul 6th 2013 | PARIS |From the print edition
1 A SWOOP was always a possibility. LVMH, maker of Louis Vuitton bags, Moët et Chandon champagne and much more, is the world leader in luxury goods and known for swallowing smaller firms. Hermès provides the cognoscenti with leather goods, silk scarves and ties, and is just such a smaller firm.
2 But it was nonetheless a shock when, on October 27th 2010, LVMH announced that it owned 17.1% of Hermès’s shares, even though market rules usually require notification when a stake as small as 5% is acquired. Hermès cried foul. Courts and regulators responded; and on July 1st the sanctions committee of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the market regulator, imposed an