The holiday blessing that Tiffany & Co shareholders gave to sell the storied jeweler to LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE pushes the contentious transaction closer to the finish line, giving LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault the long-sought pathway to expand his global collection of luxury brands.
Tiffany would be dropped from the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index now that the deal has been approved, S&P Dow Jones Indices said late on Wednesday in New York City, with the jeweler replaced by Enphase Energy Inc.
More than 99 percent of the votes cast at a virtual Tiffany shareholder meeting supported the deal, CNBC reported.
Photo: Reuters
The transaction, valued at almost US$16 billion, is expected to close early this year.
The vote was a key step in the year-long saga over the luxury industry’s biggest takeover.
LVMH had agreed to buy the iconic jeweler before trying to back out of the deal when the COVID-19 pandemic upended the retail world.
That prompted a lawsuit by Tiffany and some harsh words from both sides, and the companies eventually agreed to see the deal through at a slightly reduced price.
The two companies in October last year announced that they had reached an agreement, whereby LVMH would buy Tiffany for US$131.50 per share, down from US$135 originally promised.
Tiffany shares were little changed at US$131.35 on Wednesday in New York and are down about 1.7 percent in a tumultuous year for any retailer — let alone one trying to keep a merger intact.
Tiffany had accused LVMH of having “unclean hands” when it initially abandoned the deal.
LVMH in turn disparaged Tiffany for mismanagement of the business during the pandemic, while spending unwisely on dividends.
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