Galeries Lafayette To Take Majority Stake in Mauboussin

PARIS — Galeries Lafayette is moving deeper into the jewelry business, announcing on Friday that it is buying a majority stake in Mauboussin. The group is teaming up with Mauboussin chairman Alain Némarq for the transaction; the executive, who has held the position since 2002, will continue to run the company. Galeries Lafayette, which owns watch label Louis Pion, watch retailer Galeries Lafayette-Royal Quartz and jewelry brand Guérin Joaillerie, has been working to reinvent the traditional department store business. It recently opened an airy flagship on the Champs Elysées, with a sprawling jewelry section with modern, steel and cement display cases, and refashioned the neighborhood surrounding its BHV Marais store with Eataly cafés. “This transaction will bolster Galeries Lafayette Group’s historic expertise in the jewelry business and accompany a new phase in Maubousson’s expansion,” the company said in a statement. Mauboussin, which generates annual sales of nearly 80 million euros, is sold in its network of 75 stores in France and 20 stores abroad, as well as hundreds of multibrand stores. The transaction remains subject to approval by competition authorities.

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