LVMH sets up vehicle to hunt for emerging luxury brands

LVMH said on Friday it had set up LVMH Luxury Ventures, a vehicle destined to invest in small, promising fashion, cosmetics or accessories companies.

LVMH Luxury Ventures, which will headed by group deputy-head of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) Julie Bercovy, will buy stakes in luxury companies with sales of between 2 million and 5 million euros ($5.4 million) and a high-growth potential.

"The aim is to accompany financially the development of these small nuggets to create value," said an LVMH spokesman.

The venture will have a starting capital of 50 million euros while the size of the investment allocated to each company will range from 2 million euros to 10 million euros.

The luxury goods industry is seeing signs of a surge of emerging fashion brands that are proving popular with young consumers thanks to social networks.

The Instagram account of Anastasia Beverly Hills, a California make-up brand distributed by LVMH's Sephora network, has 13 million subscribers, while Louis Vuitton, the core division of LVMH, has 14.6 million subscribers.