Reuters: Mergers News: UPDATE 1-Virtuoso French banker Bernheim dies at 87

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UPDATE 1-Virtuoso French banker Bernheim dies at 87 Jun 5th 2012, 18:30 Tue Jun 5, 2012 2:30pm EDT PARIS, June 5 (Reuters) - Legendary French banker Antoine Bernheim, a master of high European finance and a fixture at companies from Christian Dior to Le Monde, died on Tuesday, aged 87. His death was announced by Vincent Bollore, another French entrepreneur who was his frequent ally in boardroom battles at Italian insurer Generali, where Bernheim ended up serving as chairman for nearly a decade. "Antoine Bernheim's grandson told me this morning that he had died in his sleep," Bollore said in a statement, adding that Bernheim had provided him with "unbending support and precious advice" through decades. A charismatic figure whose calculations shaped both French and Italian finance for decades, Bernheim pursued most of his professional career at French investment bank Lazard. A graduate in law and science, he was Generali chairman between 1995 and 1999 and again from 2002 until 2010 and was vice chairman of a range of companies, including French luxury group LVMH and French investment group Bollore . Bernheim also advised other leading lights of French capitalism including luxury goods billionaires Bernard Arnault, LVMH's head, and Francois Pinault, chairman of PPR. His tenure at Generali came to an end in April 2010 following disagreements over strategy with the main shareholder, Mediobanca, the powerful Italian investment bank with which Bernheim fell in and out of favor over the years. As a young Parisian, Bernheim served as a resistance fighter during World War II, but it was for his record in French and European banking that he was later awarded the highest level of the French Legion d'Honneur. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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