Billionaire’s charity fights plan to cut inheritance

Severing ties: A Hermes luxury shop in Paris. Nicolas Puech, a reclusive fifth-generation descendant of the founder of French luxury giant wants to cancel his inheritance contract with his Isocrates Foundation. — AFP

BATTLE lines are hardening in Switzerland’s Valais canton between an ageing billionaire heir to Europe’s biggest family fortune and his own charitable foundation.

Nicolas Puech, a reclusive fifth-generation descendant of the founder of French luxury giant Hermes International SCA, wants to cancel his inheritance contract with his Isocrates Foundation, the charity’s press office said in a statement.