LVMH puts $ 14.5 billion on the plate to buy Tiffany. Will he succeed?
Bulgari wants to buy Tiffany. Or better, the LVMH group, which also controls jewelery brands like Bulgari and Chaumet, offered $ 14.5 billion to Tiffany. According to the Wall Street Journal, the offer would be in cash and aims to strengthen itself on the American jewelry market. But, at the moment, the offer would have been rejected by Tiffany: price question. In essence, it seems to understand, if the owner of Lvmh, Bernard Arnault, proposed a higher price the deal could end.
It must be said that the offer of LVMH evaluates Tiffany at about $ 120 per share, more than 22% more than the closing on Friday at the New York Stock Exchange, where the American Maison is listed. For LVMH this would be the largest acquisition ever made, even higher than that to buy the remaining share of Christian Dior in 2017.
Buying Tiffany would allow Bernard Arnault’s empire to further diversify by increasing its exposure to jewelery, one of the fastest growing sectors in the luxury market. With its 300 stores worldwide, Tiffany is one of the largest jewelers in the world along with Cartier and Bulgari, which is part of the Arnault empire.
LVMH’s interest in the United States is well known and confirmed by the new factory opened in Texas last week in the presence of Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka Trump. With its 4 billion in revenues a year, Tiffany has been suffering from competition for years and is looking for a revival that only recently seems to catch a glimpse. Having hunted up CEOs and seen his titles fall to $ 60 per share, under the leadership of number one Alessandro Bogliolo, the American jewelery giant is finding the luster he seemed to have lost. In fact, with Bogliolo Tiffany has redone the look of his flagship on Fifth Avenue in New York, where he has also opened a restaurant, crowning Holly Golightly’s dream of having breakfast at Tiffany’s. The company is also committed to expanding its audience by launching a men’s line of jewelery: around a hundred items whose prices range between $ 200 and $ 15,000.
The collection is also destined to expand to furnishing, with pincers for drinking and beer mugs only for men. Furthermore, Bogliolo is a familiar face for LVMH. He was for 16 years at Bulgari before it was bought by Arnault and then he was responsible for North America for Sephora, another Lvhm brand.
