LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE agreed to acquire a controlling stake in German luggage maker Rimowa GmbH, paying 640 million euros (US$715 million) for a company whose aluminum suitcases are used by celebrities such as Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
The world’s largest luxury goods maker is acquiring the 80 percent holding from Dieter Morszeck, grandson of the Cologne, Germany-based company’s founder, LVMH said yesterday.
Alexandre Arnault, the 24-year-old son of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, is to become the brand’s co-CEO, his first big job at his father’s group.
Rimowa’s grooved suitcases have become a common sight in airport security lines, being used by celebrities including Will.i.am and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Selling for as little as US$400, the cases are less of a luxury than LVMH’s Louis Vuitton, whose trunks typically cost thousands of US dollars.
Founded in 1898, Rimowa’s growth has outpaced the broader luggage market’s 5 percent expansion over the past five years, an LVMH spokesman said.
“LVMH is looking for brands that have heritage and a unique position,” said Mario Ortelli, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.
“They know that when they acquire these brands they can accelerate their development,” Ortelli added.
As part of LVMH, Rimowa will find it easier to get top locations in shopping malls and benefit from discounted advertising, Ortelli said.
For LVMH, the acquisition is its first of a German company and will add annual revenue of about 400 million euros.
LVMH shares rose 0.8 percent to 153.25 euros in early Paris trading.
Rimowa is known for making the first aluminum suitcase, which has a recognizable design of parallel grooves. Its more recent products include a suitcase with an electronic tag in it that can communicate to the owner’s mobile phone via Bluetooth.
Morszeck is to keep a stake in the company and serve as co-CEO of Rimowa.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed gratitude to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for its plan to invest approximately 250 million euros (US$278 million) in a joint venture in France focused on the semiconductor and space industries. On his official X account on Tuesday, Macron thanked Hon Hai, also known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), for its investment projects announced at Choose France, a flagship economic summit held on Monday to attract foreign investment. In the post, Macron included a GIF displaying the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as he did for other foreign investors, including China-based
RSS