A French lighting designer has won a $600,000 (Dh2,2 million) court ruling in a dispute with Brad Pitt over the re-design of the chateau in Provence that he and Angelina Jolie shared. But designer Odile Soudant isn't stopping there.
Soudant says her business went under and her career was irreparably damaged because of Pitt's refusal to pay for costly architectural reveries. She's now fighting for the intellectual property rights to the Chateau Miraval's lighting design.
Pitt's representatives argue the project was late and over-budget and the disputed lighting design was Pitt's brainchild — not hers.
Soudant's legal actions are the latest challenge for Pitt, who is in protracted divorce proceedings with Jolie.
Chateau Miraval is a symbol of happier times in the couple's relationship. They stayed at the sprawling 17th century estate when she gave birth to their twins in nearby Monaco in 2008, launched a successful wine venture from its rich vineyards, and married there in 2014.
Soon after they bought Miraval, nestled in the wooded hills near the village of Correns, Pitt sought out designers to re-envision it for the 21st century. Soudant and her company, Lumieres Studio, were tasked with the lighting, notably taking better advantage of the sunshine in Provence, she said. She called natural light an "obsession" with Pitt.
Unusually, she says she never supplied or was given a contract.
"I had unlimited time and unlimited budget....They said, 'If you ask for more, we'll give you more."
A representative for Pitt contests this, and says there was an agreement that Soudant didn't respect. The representative requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the legal process, would not say if the agreement was written or oral.
The renovation project grew with "delirious demands" from Pitt and more and more designers getting involved, Soudant said. She hired new staff and relegated her company's other projects to bottom priority.
She says she had 17 employees working exclusively on the lighting for Miraval at one point.
After 3 ½ years of work, the chateau stopped paying Soudant for her services, she said. Her staff continued working on the project, she says, and her bills started piling up, notably for government payroll charges.
Soudant contends she later discovered that Pitt was concerned with the project's price. "One day he wakes up and decides he has paid too much," she said.
Pitt's representative said Soudant was paid more than 4 million euros ($4.7 million) for work she didn't complete; Soudant says the figure is inflated, that every hour worked and piece of material used was financially tracked, and that no one explained the stopped payments.
"They sank my business," she said in an interview.
Facing potential bankruptcy, the designer sent a warning letter. In response, she says she received a threatening email from Pitt saying friends don't sue friends, and she was barred from the chateau.
Pitt's spokesperson said Soudant didn't get along with others working on the renovation and her presence "disturbed the work."
Legal proceedings ensued, and in April, the Paris court of appeals ordered Chateau Miraval to pay 565,000 euros ($660,000) to Soudant, including 300,000 euros in unpaid bills and 60,000 euros for damage to her image and reputation. Pitt was not a party to the proceedings, though central to the dispute.
Pitt's representative said the actor's team felt the court decision was fair. Chateau Miraval and its French lawyer refused to discuss the case, referring all queries to Pitt's spokesperson.
Soudant welcomed the ruling, but said it doesn't go far enough to cover her financial or reputational losses.
"I gave up everything to accept the work at Miraval," she.
Because Pitt considers the lighting his intellectual property, Soudant says she can't include the Miraval work in her company's portfolio. She started legal procedures this month seeking to establish her property rights.
"It's my work, my creations. It's like they cut off my arm," she said.
Pitt's team appears serene about the risk of a new trial. His representative said the star was closely involved in Miraval's renovation and has "personal drawings showing that many of the ideas regarding light installations came from him."
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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A foster couple or family must:
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- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
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- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
