Christian Dior board replaces two members ahead of new shareholding structure

Oct 7 (Reuters) - French luxury company Christian Dior said on Wednesday it replaced two independent board members ahead of a change of shareholding structure planned by the family of billionaire Bernard Arnault.

Xavier Musca, a former top executive at Credit Agricole, and Tony Estanguet, who led the committee in charge of the Paris Olympics in 2024, will replace Nicolas Bazire and Maria Luisa Loro Piana, effective immediately, the company said.

The Arnault family, which controls Dior and French luxury behemoth LVMH through its holding company Agache, said last month it plans to merge it with Dior.

Agache currently owns 96% of Dior shares and 97.1% of the voting rights in Christian Dior and 6.77% in LVMH and 8.49% of the voting rights in LVMH.

The merged entity will be named Agache and it will control directly 49.76% in LVMH and 65.55% of voting rights.

The merger, expected in December, is set to include a tender offer for the 2.44% of the Christian Dior shares Agache does not own. The Arnault family will offer a price to be defined based on the LVMH share price.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Daniel Wallis)