Bernard Arnault joins race to buy Hotel Bauer in Venice

The asset has attracted bids of more than €275 million ($294 million), said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. The process is competitive and includes property firms and other investors, meaning there’s no guarantee that Arnault — the founder of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE — will get the nod, several people said.

King Street appointed real estate investment bank Eastdil Secured to find a buyer for the five-star hotel, said the people. Deliberations are ongoing and there’s no certainty they will result in a deal, according to the people. King Street declined to comment, as did a representative for Arnault.

Signa Prime Selection AG, the unit that owned the site, had agreed in April to sell three Italian properties, including Hotel Bauer, to the Schoeller Group, run by a German industrialist family of the same name. But a fund run by King Street has exercised rights to take control of the asset after the deal was announced.

LMVH owns a string of high-end hotels and properties in the luxury hospitality sector, including Belmond and Cheval Blanc Hotels & Resorts. It’s not clear whether the bidding would be done via LVMH or Agache — one of Arnault’s holding companies — one of the people said.