France’s richest man Bernard Arnault will relinquish most of his $7.5 billion holding in luxury-goods maker Hermes International (RMS) SCA, ending a protracted battle.

Following intervention by a French court, Arnault’s LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA (MC) will distribute the 23 percent stake to its shareholders and institutional investors, almost four years after the world’s largest luxury-goods company started building the holding without Hermes’s knowledge.

The announcement marks “the end of the siege,” Luca Solca, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, said via e-mail.

Hermes has been at loggerheads with LVMH over the stake, which was amassed via equity swaps. The move rallied descendants of founder Emile Hermes to pool their shares in a holding company to protect against a full takeover and sparked legal action as well as demands that Arnault reduce the shareholding. Read more.