ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – The billionaire family behind Chanel will have pocketed USD12.4 billion in payouts from the luxury brand’s earnings over the past three years, contributing to a massive increase in their personal wealth and underpinning efforts to diversify away from high fashion.
The Wertheimers’ Cayman Islands-based holding company for Chanel will receive a USD5.7 billion dividend for 2023, the largest annual payout since the maker of expensive tweed ensembles and quilted flap bags began publishing results in London six years ago. This adds to the USD1.7 billion for the previous year and USD5 billion for 2021, according to filings.
The windfall contributed to a 19 per cent rise in the clan’s net worth over the past year to USD108 billion, and about a 26 per cent increase since the 2021 dividend was paid, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The media-shy brothers Alain, 75, and Gerard, 72, are credited with owning equal shares in the closely held company, which they inherited as grandsons of one of the original business partners in Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s perfume operation.
The Wertheimers are among an ultra-wealthy group of French citizens whose luxury goods and cosmetics fortunes have ballooned in recent years as consumers splash out on expensive handbags and perfume.
