(May 15): LVMH agreed to sell the Marc Jacobs fashion label to a venture between WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group, marking a rare divestment for the world’s largest luxury group as it adjusts to softer demand.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed, though G-III said in a filing that it plans to invest up to US$425 million ($543.8 million) in the 50-50 venture. Jacobs, the brand’s founder, will continue as creative director for the affordable luxury label, the companies said on Thursday.
Marc Jacobs adds to WHP Global’s growing roster of businesses, which include Vera Wang and Rag & Bone. The acquisition will push the brand management group’s annual revenue to more than US$9.5 billion, it said.
Controlled by billionaire Bernard Arnault, LVMH has about 75 brands including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Loewe, and has held a majority stake in Marc Jacobs since 1997. The deal allows the group to capitalise on a years-long turnaround of the brand, while offloading a business in the accessible luxury category to focus on its higher-end offerings.
Marc Jacobs didn’t fit neatly into LVMH’s typical brand development formula, which involved pushing labels upmarket and expanding them globally. Bloomberg had reported in 2024 that LVMH was weighing options for the business.
Bloomberg reported in 2024 that LVMH was weighing options for Marc Jacobs.
See also: eBay spurns GameStop’s US$56 bil offer as not credible or attractive
Shares of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton fell as much as 1.8% in Paris trading, and have fallen by almost 30% this year.
Vuitton role
Marc Jacobs spent 16 years as an artistic director at Louis Vuitton, helping transform the trunkmaker into the world’s biggest luxury brand, adding ready-to-wear and collaborating with artists including Kanye West.
See also: Siemens said to mull acquisition of rail technology firm Mer Mec — Bloomberg
The New York native left the role in 2013 and returned to his namesake label, which he had founded alongside business partner Robert Duffy in 1984.
While it has been unusual for the acquisitive LVMH to sell its brands, that could be changing: Last year, chief financial officer Cécile Cabanis said on an earnings call that the company wouldn’t hold onto labels “if we believe they are not a good add-on or we are not the right operator”.
LVMH has also sold its stakes in the Off-White and Stella McCartney fashion labels.
More exclusive
Luxury demand has cooled in recent years as even industry mainstays like LVMH and Hermes International SCA saw growth moderate. Hopes early this year that the industry was poised to emerge from the slump dissipated with the start of the war in the Middle East, which curbed demand in the region and darkened the economic outlook globally.
Amid the slowdown, the more exclusive brands, like LVMH’s Loro Piana and Brunello Cucinelli, the manufacturer of high-end cashmere clothes, have often held up better than more affordable luxury labels.
As part of the Marc Jacobs deal, G-III, which owns labels including Karl Lagerfeld and Sonia Rykiel, will “acquire and operate certain parts of the brand’s global direct-to-consumer and wholesale businesses”, according to the statement.
Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee
