PARIS: French luxury goods giant LVMH said it would walk away from its planned $16 billion takeover of US jeweller Tiffany, in the most high-profile example of a deal to face collapse following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The stage is set for an acrimonious legal dispute; Tiffany said it was filing a lawsuit against LVMH to force it to complete the deal as agreed last year, accusing the French group of deliberately stalling completion of the takeover.
The deal, which would have been the biggest-ever in the luxury industry, was struck before the pandemic, which has hit the sector hard and raised questions about whether Louis Vuitton owner LVMH was overpaying.
The luxury industry is facing an unprecedented sales slump after a decade of stellar growth, with revenues expected to fall by as much as 35 per cent this year. It will take until 2022-23 for revenues to return to 2019 levels, according to consultancy Bain. — Reuters
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