Antoine Arnault to head LVMH family holding Christian Dior SE

By Mimosa Spencer and Dominique Vidalon

PARIS (Reuters) -Antoine Arnault, the eldest son of LVMH chairman and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault, has been named CEO of family holding company Christian Dior SE, replacing veteran LVMH executive Sidney Toledano.

Christian Dior SE is a listed company that owns the bulk of the Arnault family's stake in LVMH, the world's largest luxury group.

The move raises the stature of Antoine Arnault, one of Bernard Arnault's five children, all of whom hold senior positions in LVMH, the group behind fashion houses Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, as well as scores of other labels ranging from champagne to five-star hotels.

Arnault's appointment follows a recent change in the legal structure of the family's investment to ensure its control over LVMH in the long term, with holding company Agache, which owns shares in Christian Dior SE, becoming a joint-stock partnership on Dec. 6.

Bernard Arnault, 73, is CEO and chairman of LVMH and has not publicly named a successor to lead the sprawling luxury empire he built through acquisitions starting with Christian Dior SE.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Mimosa Spencer; editing by Kirsten Donovan and Jason Neely)