LVMH refuses to buy Tiffany

Tiffany went to court to force LVMH to close the deal or to award compensation to the company for the loss.

The acquisition of the American luxury jewelry retailer Tiffany by the French conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton was officially announced in November 2019. The terms of the agreement were $16.2 billion. It was planned to be completed in June 2020. However, the deal was postponed several times, first to August 24, then to November 24, 2020 – and finally, LVMH said it could not close the deal at all.

The conglomerate said it had received a letter from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking for the deal’s completion to be postponed until January 6, 2021. This date is more than a month after the closing deadline provided in the agreement – November 24. According to the LVMH, such government moves are caused by political tensions between Paris and Washington. Thus, as officially stated by the company, the transaction is not currently complete due to a violation of previously agreed deadlines. 

In turn, Tiffany declares that LVMH is using a letter from the French authorities, which is not legally valid, as a pretext to withdraw from the deal. However, the real reason is that, due to market difficulties caused by the pandemic, particularly in the luxury goods sector. The conglomerate is no longer interested in such a large-scale deal. In response, Tiffany filed a lawsuit in a Delaware state court to force LVMH to close the deal or set a compensation amount.