In this period of global economic recovery, one of the sectors that is seeing its profits grow exponentially is the luxury sector. L’Oréal, France’s third largest luxury group, has just passed the 200 billion mark in market capital for the first time.
The sector’s leaders, Kering, L’Oréal, Hermès and LVMH (KOHL), buoyed by strong Chinese demand and mass vaccination campaigns around the world, are seeing their stock market valuations return to pre-crisis levels.
The “KOHLs”, the driving force behind the CAC 40
The CAC 40, which has just reached 6500 points for the first time since September 2000, is experiencing a 79.3% rebound and owes its good economic health to French luxury groups. Compared to previous years, on March, 20th 2019, the stock market valuation of the KOHLs had reached an amount of 422 billion euros. At the height of the pandemic, in March 2020, they had bottomed out at €380.3 billion. But on Monday May, 31st, KOHLs reached a market valuation of €755 billion, the highest ever. The share of these companies in the CAC 40 has also reached a level of 35.2%, 10% more than in March 2019.
More specifically, LVMH, the leading European stock exchange, ranks 18th in the world stock exchange rankings. For its part, L’Oréal passed the 200 billion euro valuation threshold for the first time in its history, gaining 2.5%.11 days later, the gain was still on the same trend, with an increase of 0.8%. Since the beginning of the year, the world’s number one cosmetics company has thus experienced a total growth of 19.6% in its stock market valuation, making it the 32nd largest company in the world according to the Companies Market Cap website.
Also, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, the heiress of her mother Liliane Bettencourt’s empire, was able to benefit from this market valuation. Still owning a third of the capital of L’Oréal, she has propelled herself into the top 10 of the world’s largest fortunes, according to Forbes. Ranked 10th, she was named the richest woman in the world, as well as the second person of French origin to be ranked in the same list, after Bernard Arnault.
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Featured photo : © L’Oréal
