The Ghost of Six Million Shares
The ledger is empty. Nicolas Puech, the 82 year old fifth generation descendant of Thierry Hermès, claims his 5.7 percent stake in the luxury empire has vanished. We are talking about 6 million shares. At yesterday’s market close on December 12, 2025, with Hermès (RMS.PA) trading at 2,284 EUR, that stake is worth 13.7 billion EUR. It is not just a family feud. It is a systemic failure of custodial oversight that challenges the very definition of shareholder security in the 2025 luxury market.
The mystery centers on Eric Freymond. He was Puech’s long time wealth manager. For decades, Freymond held the keys to a kingdom of paper. The Swiss courts recently delivered a stinging rebuke to Puech, as reported in historical legal filings that have now culminated in the December 2025 dismissal of the final civil appeal in Geneva. The court’s stance is clinical. They found no evidence that the shares were stolen. Instead, they suggest a decades long voluntary transfer of control that Puech simply lost track of. This is the 13 billion EUR amnesia.
The Technical Mechanism of Disappearance
How do 6 million shares evaporate? In the modern era, we expect digital trails. However, Puech’s holdings were rooted in a complex web of Swiss fiduciary structures. These were not simple retail brokerage accounts. They involved bearer shares and physical certificates held in vault custody under discretionary mandates. Between 2012 and 2025, the transition from physical to dematerialized securities provided a window for obfuscation. If the beneficial owner signs broad powers of attorney, the custodian can move mountains without a single red flag at the AMF (Autorité des Marchés Financiers).
Hermès stock has outperformed the CAC 40 by 18 percent this year alone. While LVMH and Kering struggled with the 2025 slowdown in Chinese demand, Hermès maintained its ‘ultra luxury’ insulation. This performance makes the missing stake even more volatile. If those 6 million shares were to be dumped on the open market to settle potential debts or legal liabilities, the liquidity event would be catastrophic. The market is currently pricing in a ‘control premium’ that assumes the family remains a unified block. Puech has shattered that illusion.
The 2025 Wealth Management Crisis
The Puech case has sent shockwaves through the Swiss banking sector. It exposes a terrifying reality for high net worth individuals. The reliance on ‘trusted advisors’ is a structural vulnerability. According to data from Reuters financial analysis, the luxury sector’s reliance on dynastic wealth means that over 40 percent of top tier fashion house shares are held in similar opaque structures. The ‘Puech Precedent’ suggests that if your advisor moves your assets under a valid Power of Attorney, the legal system will not bail you out when you change your mind a decade later.
Institutional investors are now looking at the ‘Key Person Risk’ within the Hermès family holding company, Émile Hermès SAS. The family has successfully locked up over 50 percent of the capital to prevent a repeat of the LVMH takeover attempt from 2010. But Puech was the outlier. He was the only one who did not join the H51 holding company. His shares were the only ‘loose’ multi billion euro block. Their disappearance creates a vacuum in the company’s capital structure that the board cannot ignore.
Governance Failure or Calculated Exit
The skepticism among Parisian analysts is palpable. Is it possible for 13 billion EUR to simply vanish? The alternative theory is a calculated, off market liquidation to anonymous entities. If Puech or his associates moved these shares into private foundations or offshore trusts in jurisdictions like Singapore or the Cook Islands, they are effectively invisible to French regulators. This is not Enron style accounting fraud. This is a custody heist conducted with a pen and a signature.
As of December 13, 2025, the AMF has not launched a formal investigation into the company itself, focusing instead on the individual’s filings. This is a mistake. The integrity of the Hermès share price depends on the certainty of its float. If 5.7 percent of the company is ‘missing,’ the market is trading on incomplete data. The potential for a sudden, massive supply shock remains the primary risk for retail investors holding RMS in their portfolios.
The focus now shifts to the February 2026 annual general meeting. Shareholders are expected to demand a full audit of the share register to confirm the location of all certificates not held within the H51 block. The next specific milestone to watch is the January 15, 2026, deadline for the submission of the new Swiss financial transparency reports, which may finally force the disclosure of the ‘missing’ 6 million shares’ current beneficial owners.
