Rapper Jay-Z sells 50% of his champagne shares to the LVMH group. The cheapest bottle of Ace of Spades is around 300 euros and the most expensive is 7,000 euros.
The French luxury business group LVMH announced on Monday that it has acquired 50% of the shares and the worldwide distribution right of Armand de Brignac champagne , which is owned by American rapper Jay-Z .
The conglomerate specialized in luxury goods, born in 1987 from the merger of the fashion company Louis Vuitton and the Moët Hennessy distillery , has used the latter to materialize the operation and has added the Armand de Brignac to its portfolio of alcoholic beverages.
“We have long admired the success of Armand de Brignac and today we are proud to partner with them,” said Moët Hennessy CEO Philippe Schaus in a statement issued by the company.
For his part, the American singer said in the same statement that he is confident that “the sheer power of Moët Hennessy’s distribution framework, the strength of his unrivaled portfolio and his track record in developing luxury brands will give Armand de Brignac the business power it needs to grow even more. ”
The history of this champagne, which was born in 2006 as a commitment by the Cattier house to make a gourmet product and which has its best commercial performance in Asia, Europe and North America, took a leap forward in 2014 when the musician of ancestry African-American took over the brand.
In fact, according to the statement released by Moët Hennessy, the Armand de Brignac has grown in recent years to reach the figure of 500,000 bottles sold in 2019.
The cheapest bottle of Ace of Spades, another name by which the same champagne is known, is around 300 euros and the most expensive goes up to 7,000 euros. Jay-Z, husband of the American singer Beyoncé, explains in the note that the agreement reached is the result of the friendship he maintains with Alexandre Arnault, son of the CEO of Moët Hennessy, Bernard Arnault.
The business structure will be divided equally, which according to those involved guarantees the willingness of each partner to “contribute their strengths to ensure the success of the project.”
Armand de Brignac will have to fight to grow in a currently hostile environment such as the champagne market, which has been badly affected by the pandemic, with its sales falling by 17% in 2020, according to the French Federation of Exporters.