Luxury Empire LVMH To Buy Christian Dior for $13.1 Billion

Some say the only constant is change, and that’s certainly true in the fashion world. Big changes are coming for Dior, the 70-year-old Parisian fashion house known for its iconic status in the world of couture.

In a statement released on Tuesday, luxury empire LVMH revealed their plans to buy Christian Dior Couture for $7.1 billion, per Fashionista. They plan to integrate Christian Dior Couture into the greater Dior brand, much of which they already own. Then, LVMH will absorb the remaining shares in order to control the entire Christian Dior brand. In total, the deal will cost the luxury conglomerate nearly $13.1 billion.

Christian Dior Couture will then be filtered into the LVMH fashion and leather goods division. French billionaire and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault said in a statement that the deal would serve to strengthen their fashion and leather division, as well as further streamline their current structure models. “The corresponding transactions will allow the simplification of the structures, long requested by the market, and the strengthening of LVMH’s fashion and leather goods division,” Arnault said.

According to the statement, the boards of both Christian Dior and LVMH are in complete agreement on the deal. Apparently, the acquisition has been a long time coming, with both Dior and LVMH performing well in the past five years. Many applauded when Dior appointed their first woman creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri last June, just as LVMH tapped their first woman creative director Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy. LVMH has also been in talks about their forthcoming e-commerce site, and experienced a 15-percent rise in the revenue in the first quarter of 2017. Now, with the Dior acquisition, the luxury empire is poised for an even higher second quarter.