LVMH Seeks To Make Tiffany The Jewel In Its Crown

French luxury giant LVMH said on Monday it was in preliminary talks to take over US jewellers Tiffany but there was "no certainty" that they would be successful.

A source close to the talks said at the weekend that LVMH had made a bid for Tiffany at the start of October, but that the famous US company had yet to respond.

Tiffany, in a separate statement on Monday, confirmed "an unsolicited, non-binding proposal" from the French conglomerate, saying it was for US$120 per share, which values the company at around US$14.5 billion.

Tiffany's stock market value stood at US$11.9 billion at the close of Wall Street trading on Friday.

The US company said there were no actual discussions going on but it was "carefully reviewing" the proposal.

LVMH said earlier on Monday that "following recent market rumours, the LVMH group confirms having started preliminary discussions about a possible operation with Tiffany".

The purchase of Tiffany by LVMH would be one of the largest acquisitions by the French group, which is a world leader in luxury, present in fashion to wine, perfumes and cosmetics.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said Tiffany's profits and sales have been hit hard from the fallout in the US-China trade war and unrest in Hong Kong. (AFP)