Kering, the French luxurious items firm that owns manufacturers like Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Yves Saint Laurent, stunned the style business this week when it introduced a sweeping reorganization of its prime ranks, together with the departure of Marco Bizzarri, the longtime chief executive of Gucci, Kering’s premier model.

The transfer got here amid a 12 months of declining gross sales and inventory efficiency. But the conglomerate run by the billionaire François-Henri Pinault can also be underneath stress from Bluebell Capital Partners, an activist hedge fund in London that has tangled with luxurious titans earlier than, stated an individual with information of the matter who spoke on the situation of anonymity.

Kering declined to remark.

Activists have turned on the posh business lately. Dan Loeb’s Third Point in addition to Artisan Partners referred to as for change at Richemont, the proprietor of jewellery manufacturers like Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. But probably the most energetic lately is Bluebell, a four-year-old, $250 million agency that has additionally taken aim at Richemont and the style model Hugo Boss. (Bluebell has additionally pushed for change at BlackRock and the pharmaceutical big GlaxoSmithKline.)

Bluebell failed to influence fellow Richemont shareholders so as to add Francesco Trapani, the previous chief govt of Bulgari, as a director, however the conglomerate agreed to present public traders extra affect.

Bluebell has an bold aim for Kering. Though the hedge fund is in search of a lot of modifications on the conglomerate and at Gucci, it has additionally proposed a merger with Richemont, the particular person with information of the discussions stated.

But making the deal occur won’t be simple. Richemont’s founder, Johann Rupert, stated in May that he was not interested in a merger — and had rejected such a proposal two years in the past. Mr. Pinault might not be , both. Moreover, each luxurious firms are managed by their founding households, making it practically unimaginable for out of doors traders to prevail in company elections.

Bluebell is hoping that restive shareholders will be part of its push. Kering’s inventory worth has been eclipsed by rivals similar to Hermes and LVMH up to now 12 months, whereas gross sales rose just 1 percent, to five.08 billion euros (then $5.58 billion) within the first quarter. But Kering’s inventory rose greater than 7 % on Wednesday after Bloomberg first reported on Bluebell’s efforts.