French millionaire exodus swells with two more heading to London

Following the rush to buy property and establish residency in a small Belgian border town by the French ultra-wealthy including actor Gerard Depardieu, two more French billionaires are heading to London.

CEO of France’s tech giant Dassault Systems Bernard Charles is as critical as those who’ve gone before him over the French Government’s plan to tax millionaires to the hilt. Two super-executives from famous French champagne company Moet Hennessy have already moved lock, stock and brandy barrel to London from their bases in Paris.

According to Charles, Francois Hollande’s new tax rules are a huge handicap for the seriously wealthy in France. The country’s economy is still struggling, and President Hollande is under increasing pressure as more millionaires leave.

During an interview with Le Monde, Charles stated that, due to the new tax structure, his company will now need to hire top managers from elsewhere in the European Union. However, France’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, himself applying for Belgian residency, has denied that the two top Moet executives are leaving for tax reasons.

Moet Hennessy is one of Arnault’s companies, with the director of Arnault’s LVMH holding company Giles Hennessy and Moet Hennessy’s CEO Christophe Navarre the two executives now domiciled in London. According to a spokesperson from LVMH, the holding company will still be France-based.

The renewed controversy is likely to hit President Hollande’s popularity again, with his approval ratings already as low as 30 per cent. Unemployment across France is now running at 10 per cent, and is unlikely to improve any day soon.