A deeper look at LVMH (part 1); Minimalist packing tips
1) Today, let's take the next step with analysis on a stock that I received a deluge of reader requests on...
In my November 14 e-mail, I took a quick look at Paris-based global luxury-goods company LVMH (MC.PA) (its full name is LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton, Société Européenne). So now, it's time to take it a step further...
LVMH has 75 brands across a range of categories.
The company is best known for its fashion and leather-products brands such as Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Celine, Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Marc Jacobs.
In the wines and spirits segment, LVMH's brands include Dom Pérignon, Moët & Chandon, and Hennessy.
The company also sells watches and jewelry under the Tiffany & Co., TAG Heuer, Bulgari, and Hublot brands.
Lastly, it makes perfumes, cosmetics, and luxury yachts... and operates daily newspapers, a luxury tourism service, and even a leisure and theme park.
This graphic from marketing consultant Ipanovia shows LVMH's brands, broken down by segment:
This remarkable company was built almost from scratch by Frenchman Bernard Arnault, the world's fifth-richest man (along with his family), with a fortune that Forbes pegs at nearly $155 billion today – behind Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, and just ahead of Warren Buffett.
For some additional background, here's an insightful interview the Financial Times did with him five years ago: Bernard Arnault: 'I always liked being number one'. Excerpt:
Age has clearly not mellowed his desire to win. The 70-year-old has a compulsion to possess beautiful brands and transform their creativity into profits. He has over the past four decades built LVMH from a near-bankrupt French textile company to a global group with €46.8bn sales in 2018...
"I always liked being number one," Arnault says simply. "I did not succeed at the piano, I did not succeed at tennis. I consider that success is to arrive at a point where all my teams, the group is the number one in the world." He adds, without irony: "We are still small. We're just getting started. This is very fun. We are number one, but we can go further."
And here's an article from earlier this year that traces the history of the company: LVMH: A Timeline Behind the Building of the World's Most Valuable Luxury Goods Group. Excerpt:
Arnault – now 74-years-old and the among the richest men in the world, according to Bloomberg's running "Billionaires" list – has spent billions of dollars and worked doggedly to amass no less than 70 luxury brands under the umbrella of the group that is now coined LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Reflecting on his idea to put so many luxury brands – including those competing with each other – under one roof, Arnault told CNBC in 2018, "In the 90s, I had the idea of a luxury group and at the time I was very much criticized for it. I remember people telling me it doesn't make sense to put together so many brands. And it was a success ... And for the last 10 years now, every competitor is trying to imitate, which is very rewarding for us. I think they are not successful but they try."
Lastly, here's an in-depth Acquired podcast episode on The Complete History & Strategy of LVMH.
As you can see from the 20-year stock chart I shared last week, LVMH's stock has been an exceptional performer, but has lost more than a third of its value in the past eight months (as I said, I love stock charts like this – they often signify a great business encountering temporary difficulties):
So next, let's take a deeper dive into the numbers...
Not surprisingly, LVMH's revenue and operating income have grown massively as well, with a little hiccup this year, which no doubt explains the stock's drop:
The cash-flow statement also shows very strong performance... though I'm going to need to investigate why capital expenditures ("capex") have doubled in the past three years. Here's what LVMH's cash flow from operations, capex, and free cash flow ("FCF") look like over the past 20 years:
Turning to the balance sheet, LVMH's net debt has risen substantially. But keep in mind that this is a very large company (as of yesterday's close, it sports a $303 billion market cap) with robust cash flows, so debt is only 1.5 times trailing-12-month earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization ("EBITDA"). Here's the long-term chart of net debt:
How could debt have risen when LVMH was generating so much FCF?
To answer this question, let's look at the company's capital allocation:
We can see that LVMH has paid a steadily rising dividend (the stock's current yield is about 2.3%), but the company's main use of capital has been acquisitions as it has built its empire.
The largest ones were an 80% stake in the Italian luxury company Loro Piana for 2 billion euros in 2013... Christian Dior for 6.5 billion euros in 2017... Belmond, an operator of luxury hotels, trains, and river cruises, for $3.2 billion in 2019... and, the largest by far, Tiffany for $15.8 billion in 2021.
In summary, LVMH's financial performance is strong. But I'll want to take a closer look at whether the Tiffany acquisition has been dragging the company down a bit, as that coincided with a flatlining of operating cash flow and a rise in capex.
I'll take a deeper dive into why the stock is down this year and whether this represents a potential buying opportunity in tomorrow's e-mail, so stay tuned!
2) As you read this, I'm on a 17-hour flight home from New Zealand...
My wife Susan and I departed at 4 p.m. local time on Thursday, but were 18 hours ahead, so we're landing at 3 p.m. Eastern time this afternoon – an hour before we took off!
As always, I used all of my minimalist packing tricks to fit everything I needed for two weeks on the other side of the world in this small rolling backpack (currently only $63.99 on Amazon):
In this seven-minute video, I described how I packed so lightly.
One key is to only bring the shoes I'm wearing.
As such, they need to be shoes that are comfortable enough to walk around in all day, athletic enough to go to the gym or for a run, yet look nice enough to wear to dinner at a nice restaurant.
My answer? On's (ONON) Cloudmonster Sneakers:
At $169.99 on Amazon, they're expensive... but very much worth it.
Another key is to hand wash my clothes in the sink or while I'm showering, wring them out, and leave them to dry overnight.
This means I can travel indefinitely with only two shirts, pants (one nice pair... and the other being light, quick-drying, technical-fabric climbing pants – these are the ones I brought), socks, and underwear – most of which you can see drying in this picture:
Lastly, I never take a trip without my Therm-a-Rest inflatable seat cushion ($29.36 on Amazon).
It's heavy-duty because it's designed for sitting on rocks when you're camping. And if you're like me, without a lot of natural cushioning, it's a butt-saver – I'm so much more comfortable when I have to sit for long periods of time (as I often do) at a sporting event or in a car, train, plane, etc.
Here's what it looks like:
Best regards,
Whitney
P.S. I welcome your feedback – send me an e-mail by clicking here.