LVMH's 2024 results: the story behind the numbers
This is what's really on Bernard Arnault's mind as he unveils LVMH's 2024 finances
It’s earnings season, and so today we are going to focus on Bernard Arnault’s annual financial report in Paris yesterday. We’ll run through the wins, the losses and some of the stories behind the results, to give you an at a glance overview of this huge, complex $390 billion empire. As always, it’s a case of “follow the money,” because where the money goes, so too does the power, the egos, and well, the money.
"For once, I'm not going to announce record results," Arnault began. LVMH's net profit fell by 17 per cent to €12.6 billion in the fiscal year of 2024, on sales of €84.7 billion, down 2 per cent on 2023. Its operating margin dropped to 23.1 per cent versus 26.5 per cent in 2023. As of writing, LVMH’s share price was down 5 per cent to €713.20.
So remember, it’s always the money. Not for nothing, did fashion critic, Sarah Mower, once call Arnault, “The Rupert Murdoch of Luxury.”
The US
LVMH’s relationship with America, and most vitally, its relationship with Donald Trump, will surely be the most consequential for the group in the short to medium term. Right now, it accounts for 25 per cent of the group’s turnover, but the region will become even more important while it waits for China’s recovery.
What Bernard Arnault said
“I am back from the US as you kindly mentioned, and I saw the momentum of optimism in the country,” said Arnault. “To come back to France and it’s a little bit of a shock. In the US people are welcoming you with open arms, taxes are going to go down to 15 per cent, the workshops that we can build in the US are subsidised in quite a few ways. And the American president encourages this practice. The market is developing fast.”
“You’re back in France and you see that taxes are going to go up 40 per cent in companies manufacturing in France. This is hard to believe. ‘Made in France’ is going to be taxed. That’s a good way to tame your enthusiasm. What a great idea to encourage people to outsource. I don’t know if that’s the government’s ambition, but that’s what they’re going to achieve. We did come up with alternatives, but with all the red tape we didn’t achieve. Just appoint a person to cut the red tape [laughs] it doesn’t work in France.”
What he really meant
What we imagine Arnault was really thinking…
We are in a game of thrones with the new Trump administration and the booming US market has overtaken China as the most important for all luxury groups. The capricious new President/Prince has to be placated at all costs, especially on the matter of trade tariffs, which if implemented, will kill us financially.
“Made In France,” while a nice idea, has always been just marketing. If we have to outsource production to the US to avoid tariffs, it’ll be fine. Most of what we sell is just branded merch anyway — it can be made anywhere. So why not the US? The lovely things you see on the catwalk are just marketing for high margin handbags and perfume, the production of which is already outsourced to goodness knows where.
We have made a huge $15.8 billion investment in Tiffany, spending $350 million on the flagship store in New York alone, which was starting to go awry, but thankfully posted 9 per cent organic growth this year. Look, I know they are vulgar, but remember, money! We need to cosy up to all the MAGA crypto-finance bros who might buy stuff from us when they get married.
Even though France helped me to become one of the richest men in the world, I like to moan about taxes at every single opportunity and have a long and prestigious track record of it. Even though it’s just a one-off tax to help my country balance its books, why not take the opportunity here to complain yet again, while cosying up to the new President of the United States?