Drinks, anyone?
OBSTINACY and deep pockets have won him a place at the negotiating table. But can Bernard Arnault get anything now he is there? On July 16th, the chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, a French luxury-goods firm, offered an alternative to the merger plan announced by two British drinks companies, Grand Metropolitan and Guinness, in May. They promptly rejected it. But this does not mean that Mr Arnault's ideas for transforming the stagnant $140 billion world spirits market are wrong.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Drinks, anyone?”
From the July 19th 1997 edition
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