LVMH abandons US$16 billion Tiffany & Co. takeover deal – 6 brands LVMH has actually bought since 2015, from Rimowa suitcases to Belmond hotels
LVMH has announced a delay in the US$16 billion Tiffany & Co. acquisition deal – so which other luxury brand names has the French luxury conglomerate actually bought lately?
The conglomerate – owner of Louis Vuitton and one of the world’s big three luxury goods companies alongside Kering and Richemont – was only founded by Arnault in 1987, but has been growing fast by gobbling up other companies since the 1990s, and these days owns the likes of Celine, Givenchy, Kenzo, Marc Jacobs and Bulgari, as well as a host of businesses in areas including wine and spirits, fragrance and retail.
Here are six of LVMH’s biggest buys over the past half a decade that the company actually followed through.
Belmond
Bulgari Hotels and the ultra-luxury Cheval Blanc hotel group are long-standing elements of the LVMH portfolio; in December 2018 it greatly expanded its travel-related holdings with the acquisition of Belmond, formerly known as Orient Express Hotels, for US$3.2 billion including debt, at a time when Belmond had annual revenues of US$572 million.
Belmond owns a collection of more than 30 high-end hotel properties in exclusive locations, across 24 countries on five continents, and also operates river cruises and luxury train services including the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and The Royal Scotsman.
In buying the company, LVMH is betting on the continued expansion of the experiential travel market, with younger consumers in particular increasingly seeing unique experiences rather than expensive objects as the essence of luxury.