Two and a half years after it broke out, the ongoing dispute between the French tycoons Bernard Arnault and Francois Pinault over the Italian luxury goods group Gucci was finally declared over last week.

In the end, a carefully crafted agreement between Arnault’s LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) and Pinault’s PPR (Pinault-Printemps-Redoute) was all it took to break the deadlock, which was sparked by PPR taking a 42% ‘White Knight’ stake in the Florentine fashion house in March 1999. (See leatherbiz.com story PPR/LVMH look set to bury the hatchet - 10.9.01).

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