Jay-Z Sells 50 Percent Of His Champagne Brand To LVMH
The rapper's luxe Armand de Brignac bubbly now joins the ranks of Dom Pérignon, Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, and more following the major business deal.
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Jay-Z Sells 50 Percent Of His Champagne Brand To LVMH
Jay-Z and renowned luxury group LVMH are entering a new era together.
It was announced today, via The New York Times, that the best-selling rapper has sold 50 percent of his champagne brand, Armand de Brignac, also known as Ace of Spades, to the French conglomerate.
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Though the financial terms of the new partnership haven't been released to the public, the Times reported that in 2018, half of Armand de Brignac was valued at a cool $250 million, per Jay-Z's verse in his track with Meek Mill, "What's Free."
"I'm 50 percent of D'Ussé and it's debt-free / 100 percent of Ace of Spades, worth half a B," rapped the mogul at the time. D'Ussé is the brand of cognac Jay-Z owns along with Bacardi.
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Per the NYT, the partnership between the hip-hop mogul and the luxury company happened "very naturally," and the two parties are eager to see how they can grow the brand's notoriety along the other luxe champagnes, including Dom Pérignon, Moët & Chandon, Ruinart, Krug, and Veuve Clicquot. Their business deal also comes at a challenging time for the champagne industry, which saw sales of the drink fall by a fifth due to a decline in events, celebrations, and the shattering of the restaurant industry amid the COVID-19 pandemic, per WWD.
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"We had been following its success over the last few years and we thought, this is crazy. Most Champagne brands see very modest growth, and he was just shooting up through the ranks. We tasted the Champagne and we said, yes, there is something to be done together," said Philippe Schaus, chief executive officer of Moët Hennessy, in an interview with WWD. "We are already global leaders with our prestige Champagne brands—Dom Pérignon, Krug and the prestige cuvées of Veuve Clicquot and Ruinart—but Armand de Brignac has created another niche and in some respects revolutionized the prestige category, so we wanted to be part of that. They opened Champagne to a new clientele, so in that sense, it's a great complement to our portfolio."
This article originally appeared on Harper’s BAZAAR US.