LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton

The group traces its origin to 1987, when Louis Vuitton — a trunk and leather-goods maker founded in 1854 — merged with Moët Hennessy to form a single luxury company [1]. From that base the group expanded largely through acquisition, adding fashion, fragrance, cosmetics, jewellery and spirits houses over the following decades. Some of its holdings predate the merger itself: the Spanish house Loewe came under LVMH ownership in 1986, and Christian Dior perfumes trace their place in the group back to 1968.

Its beauty and fragrance holdings were assembled steadily. The group took ownership of Givenchy in 1988, the Kenzo perfume business in 1993, and the historic French perfumer Guerlain in 1994. It added the American cosmetics brand Benefit and the professional make-up house MAKE UP FOR EVER in 1999, the skincare brand fresh in 2000, and the Italian fragrance house Acqua di Parma in 2001. More recent additions include the make-up brand KVD Beauty in 2020 and the niche perfumer Maison Francis Kurkdjian in 2017.

Within its Perfumes and Cosmetics division, LVMH owns a range of well-known fragrance and cosmetics houses. These include Guerlain, Parfums Christian Dior, Givenchy, Kenzo Fragrance and the Italian house Acqua di Parma, along with the niche perfumer Maison Francis Kurkdjian.

In colour cosmetics and skincare, the group owns Benefit Cosmetics, MAKE UP FOR EVER, the skincare brand fresh, OLEHENRIKSEN, KVD Beauty and KENZOKI. It also holds the beauty lines launched with the musician Rihanna — Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin and Fenty Hair — and produces Marc Jacobs fragrances under licence.

Beyond dedicated beauty houses, several LVMH-owned luxury brands also carry significant fragrance and cosmetics lines, among them Dior, the Italian jeweller Bulgari and its Bvlgari Le Gemme fragrance collection. The group also owns the Spanish fashion and leather house Loewe, which similarly extends into fragrance. Taken together, these brands span mass-market colour cosmetics, professional make-up, niche perfumery and heritage French fragrance.

LVMH has grown chiefly by acquiring established houses rather than building new ones. In 2011 it acquired a controlling stake in the Italian jeweller Bulgari, buying the roughly 50.4% of shares held by the founding family [1]. In 2017 it took full ownership of the fashion and perfume house Christian Dior, consolidating Christian Dior Couture within the group [1].

The group has occasionally created brands as well. In 2019 it launched Fenty together with Rihanna, which it described as the first new fashion house it had created in 32 years [1]. Its largest acquisition to date came in 2021, when it completed the purchase of the American jeweller Tiffany & Co. for approximately EUR 16 billion [1].

LVMH is a public company listed on Euronext Paris under the ticker MC [1]. Control rests with the Arnault family, which according to Wikipedia holds about 48.6% of the shares and 64.33% of the voting rights through the holding company Christian Dior SE [1]. This structure keeps the group publicly traded while leaving day-to-day control in family hands, an arrangement it has maintained across its expansion.