Paris (Reuters) -Luca de Meo, the director general of Renault Group, will leave the group at the diamond from July 15 to fall under “new challenges”, the French car manufacturer announced Sunday evening, confirming information from Figaro.

According to the daily, François-Henri Pinault, majority shareholder and current CEO of Kering, decided to separate the functions of president and managing director of the family group, which would allow the Italian leader to become the CEO of the luxury group, owner of brands like Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga.

“Luca de Meo has expressed his decision to leave his duties in order to meet new challenges outside the automotive sector,” wrote Renault in a brief press release published after a board of directors of the diamond.

The sudden departure of the craftsman of the recovery of the French car manufacturer is a dramatic stroke while Luca de Meo had been renewed last year for four years.

Arrived at the head of Renault in 2020, the year marked by a historic loss, the former Volkswagen relaunched the group through a vast product offensive, in particular with the return of iconic silhouettes such as the R5, as well as with an all -out partnership policy to maintain the manufacturer in the electrification race despite a size and a margin of financial maneuver inferior than he.

If he has failed to introduce his Ampere electric subsidiary on the stock market, Luca de Meo has engaged, with the president of the group Jean-Dominique Senard, a long-standing project, the overhaul of his strategic alliance of almost twenty years with Nissan. The French State has a 15% stake in Renault.

Luca de Meo was to present a new strategic plan in the fall, “Futurama”, to try to perpetuate the group’s recent success. Renault is one of the few manufacturers not to have warned its financial results last fall.

Solicited, a spokesperson for Kering refused to comment on the Figaro information.

If the transfer of Luca from Meo to Kering is confirmed, this would mark a radical change within the luxury group which has not succeeded recently in convincing financial investors with its Gucci recovery project, the main contributor to sales and the benefit of the group.

Speculations on the future direction of Kering accelerated last week after the French media reported that François-Henri Pinault was about to give up his role as CEO.

A source close to François-Henri Pinault told Reuters that the CEO of Kering was actively working on his succession.

Kering unexpectedly canceled an event with analysts scheduled for Monday, without specifying the reasons, said a source close to the file.

The Kering action has lost more than 60% of its value in the past two years after a series of warnings on profits and changes in the group’s organization chart, especially at Gucci.

(Written by Claude Chendjou, with Gilles Guillaume, Tassilo Hummel, Leigh Thomas, Dominique Vidalon and Gabriel Stargardter)

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