* Hermes says continues to see incompatibility with LVMH
* Hermes next CEO will come from current executive committee
(Adds details, quotes, background)
By Astrid Wendlandt and Pacale Denis
PARIS, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Hermes deputy chief executive Patrick Albaladejo said on Tuesday the French luxury group did not have any contact with its unwelcome shareholder and rival LVMH, which last week offered to co-operate.
At its results presentation on Friday, LVMH boss Bernard Arnault offered to work with Hermes, while people close to LVMH said later it could offer Hermes some cost savings by grouping their advertising budgets or finding locations for new shops.
But Hermes, which views LVMH's shareholding as hostile, rejected Arnault's olive branch and said on Tuesday it had no contacts with the group.
"I do not know of any contact between LVMH and Hermes," Albaladejo told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
"Whatever the tone adopted (by LVMH), (cultural) incompatibility between our two groups remains."
To defend itself against the threat of a potential LVMH takeover, Hermes family shareholders, who own 73 percent of the company, have recently allocated shares representing 50.2 percent of equity to create a controlling holding company.
The French market watchdog AMF has cleared the path for the move, but small independent shareholders have appealed against the decision.
Albaladejo said it could take between four and six months for the appeal to be cleared and for the holding to be created.
Asked if the holding would stay at 50.2 percent, he said: "It is meant to go up as it was created to buy back family holdings."
Hermes surprised the market last week by announcing it would pay an interim dividend for the first time ever, which many analysts saw as a gesture aimed at helping family shareholders resist the temptation of selling their shares to LVMH.
Separately, Hermes this week re-organised its management by creating the post of chief operating officer, held by Axel Dumas, a cousin of Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the brand's chief creative officer and son of late Hermes chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas.
Axel Dumas used to be head of the company's leather goods and saddlery division.
The management changes will take place in May.
All of Hermes family shareholders are descendants of Emile Hermes who had three daughters and who thereafter divided the family into the Puech, Guerrand and Dumas branches.
Hermes is headed by a non-family member Patrick Thomas.
But Albaladejo said Thomas's successor would likely come from the executive committee, which now includes Guillaume de Seynes, also a Dumas family member, who is now in charge of production and Hermes holdings, which include a 45 percent stake in fashion brand Jean-Paul Gaultier. (Editing by Will Waterman)