Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. In today’s super-special issue, available exclusively to Inner Circle members (trade up here), I’m taking a look at the ambitions of Mayhoola, the Qatari royal family–backed investment firm whose founders were once believed to harbor ambitions of challenging luxury’s largest strategic groups in Europe. Is that still the plan?
Up top, a little bit on the report in Challenges, the French business weekly, suggesting that François-Henri Pinault may be exiting the C.E.O. role at Kering. Plus, some intel on Tiffany’s newish celebrity strategy, and a look at the sitch at Victoria’s Secret, which is once again facing activist pressure.
Programming note: Tomorrow on Fashion People, my guests are Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo, co-founders of 831 Stories (which could be described as the Blumhouse of the romance genre). Claire and Erica are experts in using stories to drive sales of actual products, and I thought it would be fun for them to share their do’s and don’ts for content and commerce. They also happen to be two of my closest friends, who recently ended a decade-long podcast run. If you miss listening to them, as I do, let this be a balm. Catch us here and here.
For those of you with the Shoppies: I have a lot of Mickeys in my life. My mom. The mouse. Mickey Drexler, with whom I had breakfast yesterday at All Time, before he recorded an episode of a very famous podcast (more on that soon). And then there’s Mickey Boardman, the Paper magazine editor, and one of the kindest, most original people working in fashion. This weekend, he’s hosting his 25th charity sale at The Standard off Cooper Square, featuring plenty of fabulous one-off pieces donated by designers and brands in fashion, beauty, and home. A whopping 100 percent of the proceeds will benefit CITTA. If you’d like to get a leg up on the crowds, there’s a V.I.P. sale on Friday, June 13 (tickets are only $100). The Saturday and Sunday events are open to all. Say hi to Mickey for me.
Mentioned in this issue: Mayhoola, Valentino, Kering, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, LVMH, François-Henri Pinault, Francesca Bellettini, Jean-Marc Duplaix, Tiffany, Greta Lee, Mikey Madison, Alexandre Arnault, Dior, Cartier, Hillary Super, Victoria’s Secret, and many, many more…
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR
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For your consideration: Max presents the HBO Original Mountainhead. From the creator of Succession, Mountainhead stars Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Youssef as four rival tech billionaires gather for their annual mountain retreat. But when one of their AI platforms sparks a global crisis, their boys’ weekend spirals into chaos. The future of humanity may be a game to them, but billions of lives are on the table. Don’t miss the TV movie Variety is calling “A MASTERCLASS IN SATIRE,’ Emmy-eligible for Outstanding Television Movie and all other categories. Now streaming on Max.
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Three Things You Should Know…
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- The FHP succession process commences: Challenges, the French business weekly minority-owned by LVMH, has published a multisource report indicating that François-Henri Pinault, the 63-year-old chairman and C.E.O. of Kering, is considering separating the two roles and stepping down from the day-to-day operations once a successor is identified. A rep for Kering declined to comment on the article and its assertions.From my own reporting on the matter, it is logical that Pinault may have started what could be a multiyear search for a successor. (I first broached the subject almost a year ago.) He was never a micromanager, but the luxury industry crisis—not to mention Kering’s more specific crisis—has meant playing a far more active role day to day, something he perhaps was not anticipating when, through the Pinault family office, he bought the Hollywood talent business CAA at a reported $7 billion valuation in 2023. As for whether purported internal candidates and longtime deputies Francesca Bellettini and Jean-Marc Duplaix have a chance at succeeding him? More on that next week…
- Tiffany is creaming Cartier on the celebrity ambassador front: A loyal Line Sheet reader asked, “Can you please write about Greta Lee and Mikey Madison for Tiffany & Co.? Who at LVMH is in charge? Seeing these women as ambassadors had me surprised and excited—in contrast to Lily Collins for Cartier, which feels like a miss.” Great question. While Tiffany has a long way to go to match Cartier on brand sentiment, I agree that Greta and Mikey are more inspired choices—although I understand Lily, too.Cartier, for its part, is working in the same vein as Dior and Valentino during the Pierpaolo years—traditionally engaging actresses and actors with broad appeal. (I’m thinking of Jennifer Lawrence for Dior or Florence Pugh for Valentino.) Tiffany, however, is taking the brand ambassador approach scripted by the more daring fashion houses, starting with Prada and Miu Miu in the late ’90s, but also Louis Vuitton, Loewe, and Bottega Veneta more recently.
In the old playbook, an ingénue would film an indie movie, often made by Miramax, and secure a front-of-book placement in W. The brands would see it, and a deal would be done before the movie even came out. (Kate Young would often be involved.) Now, magazines obviously play a smaller role, but there are more connectors in Hollywood, like UTA’s Dan Constable, who liaise directly with the brands, often before a client’s film has distribution. These days, the breeding ground is A24.
At Tiffany, all signs point to the fingerprints of Hector Muelas, the brand’s global chief brand and creative officer, who was installed two years ago by his on-again, off-again co-conspirator, Alexandre Arnault. Muelas was Alexandre’s right hand at Rimowa, left the fold for a while to complete a second stint at Apple, and was wooed to Tiffany by A.A. to help get the house in order. The new campaign appeals to the Net-a-Porter customer—a woman who has a job and spends tens of thousands of dollars a year on clothing and accessories.
- Tariffs, activist investors, data breaches, and more!: Will Hillary Super get even one entire year to implement her turnaround of Victoria’s Secret, where she was appointed C.E.O. last September? Probably, although she’s been dealt a really unfortunate hand. Not only has the tariff situation negatively impacted the company’s largely made-in-Asia lingerie business—adding an estimated $50 million in expenses—but a recent data breach forced it to shutter its website for several days.Meanwhile, activist investor Brett Blundy—whose firm, BBRC International, owns nearly 13 percent of the business—is out for blood, calling for an overhaul of the board. (Mind you, the board has already been overhauled in recent years, after a bunch of crazy stuff happened that I wrote about in my VS book; please buy it here.) Despite having to adjust its full-year outlook downward, the company’s first-quarter sales were good, even after the website shutdown. The question, however, is whether Super will be able to tweak the brand image in a modern way and get rid of all the dated product that was rolled out by the former designer, Janie Schaffer. (Not easy!) One note from me: Women are still searching for a bra that fits, so maybe focus on that?
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And now, on to the main event…
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Rumors abound regarding Mayhoola, the Qatari royal family–backed investment vehicle that once aspired to challenge LVMH and Kering before pivoting. Now, it seems, it’s pivoting again…
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Mayhoola for Investments, the Qatari royal family–backed firm, has been on my mind lately. Of course, there’s the near-incessant speculation about the timing of its sale of Valentino, its most prized possession, to Kering. (Kering currently owns 30 percent of the business.) More recently, I heard chatter that Mayhoola was considering an acquisition of Etro and Missoni, two Italian heritage brands desperate for new ownership.
Etro, which is controlled by L Catterton with a minority owned by the family, is a niche play. But Missoni, where the family still owns a majority of the business alongside the Italian investment fund FSI, seems like a major opportunity. The brand does less than €200 million a year in sales, but has higher awareness than many much larger competitors. (The Missoni zigzag is almost as recognizable as the Burberry check.)
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR
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For your consideration: Max presents the HBO Original Mountainhead. From the creator of Succession, Mountainhead stars Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Youssef as four rival tech billionaires gather for their annual mountain retreat. But when one of their AI platforms sparks a global crisis, their boys’ weekend spirals into chaos. The future of humanity may be a game to them, but billions of lives are on the table. Don’t miss the TV movie Variety is calling “A MASTERCLASS IN SATIRE,’ Emmy-eligible for Outstanding Television Movie and all other categories. Now streaming on Max.
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But scaling Missoni would require a level of operational expertise that Mayhoola has struggled to achieve. Also, it would represent something of a strategy reversal. A couple of years ago, after all, it appeared that Mayhoola had recast its ambitions of infiltrating Big Luxury.
When it was founded, in 2012, Mayhoola swiftly scooped up Valentino from private equity firm Permira for $850 million, and took a stake in British handbag brand Anya Hindmarch—major power moves during an era when Kering and LVMH had yet to reach their manifest destinies. Soon enough, the whisper network suggested that Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, a wife of the former emir of Qatar, and her public-facing partner, C.E.O. Rachid Mohamed Rachid, were interested in creating a legitimate competitor to the European luxury conglomerates. Then, in 2016, Mayhoola bought Balmain at an absolutely crazy valuation—€485 million, reportedly 14 times its EBITDA—and the speculation went into overdrive.
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In Mayhoola’s first decade, the luxury world transformed via a mix of consolidation and transformational growth. To wit: In 2012, the market for luxury accessories—handbags and wallets, essentially—was €57 billion. In 2022, it was €80 billion, according to Bain. The smaller brands that once showed great promise were left in the dust.
By the end of the 2010s, LVMH and Kering were less interested in scaling up heritage labels that generated under €500 million a year, focusing instead on acquiring already-established operations that could quickly ladder up to €5 billion. The sheer size of these groups, and the control they exercised over the rest of the industry—from the supply chain to the sales floor—negated any opportunity for a challenger business, even with all the Qatari money in the world. Mayhoola’s two-step deal with Kering on Valentino, which was announced two years ago, seemed to signal that the company had gleaned this epiphany, too.
As the company sells off Valentino, there has also been speculation that it is shopping around Balmain. (Even before the pandemic, the group had offloaded Anya Hindmarch to the Iranian-British Marandi family.) Meanwhile, Bidayat, a Swiss-based investment firm linked to Mayhoola and led by Rachid, started buying up smaller labels, like the once-beloved, currently dormant Walter Albini. (There were rumors that Alessandro Michele might join the brand as creative director. Obviously, he landed at Valentino instead.) Perhaps Mayhoola was never meant to be a truly
strategic group, but rather a more traditional private equity play focused on acquiring and nurturing the small brands that the conglomerates abdicated interest in.
There’s another possibility, too. According to my reporting, Mayhoola isn’t currently looking at Etro and Missoni. In fact, given how much the industry has changed in the two years since Mayhoola engaged Kering on Valentino, the looming question is whether Mayhoola and Kering might enter some sort of strategic alliance. Mayhoola has money; Kering has the brands; and Groupe Artémis, the Pinault family office, has billions of dollars in debt that didn’t exist three years ago. Coupled with the reports that Pinault is starting to plan his succession, it’s not hard to imagine some larger partnership.
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Could Mayhoola help fuel the next iteration of Kering? While there’s been speculation that Mayhoola may take an equity stake in Kering, rather than cash, when the Valentino transaction is completed (the possibility is stipulated in the contract), I’m confident that Kering will do what it can to ensure that doesn’t happen. Speculation that the deal will be completed at the end of this year, or early next, is premature, I was told. More likely, Kering will wait until the very last minute to close the deal; the deadline is the end of 2028.
And that might be the smart move for both companies. That’s two and a half years away. Who knows what can happen between now and then, but whatever transpires, I’m sure Mayhoola is viewing this uncertain period in luxury as an opportunity, too.
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Skims C.E.O. (and perennial Line Sheet character) Jens Grede is now on the board of UTA, which, as you may know, recently got a new C.E.O. [ The Hollywood Reporter]
New Net-a-Porter C.E.O. Heather Kaminetsky announced her starting lineup at the retailer, recently acquired by Mytheresa-owner LuxExperience. Brigitte Chartrand is joining from Ssense to run buying and merchandising; Claudia Plant, Net’s first employee, is returning as chief brand and customer officer; and Jeffrey Trosch is being promoted into the role of North American president. These are people with very different complementary skills from Kaminetsky, all of whom should aid in a proper turnaround. [Inbox]
Chanel’s newly appointed chief comms officer is Ruth Warder, a heavy hitter from Edelman. We’re not in Paris anymore, Toto! ( P.S.: What happened with that U.S. comms job?) [ WWD]
I love this Saint Laurent campaign starring Christopher Walken and shot by Glen Luchford. [ Instagram]
Why is she like this? [ Vogue]
I hate to be a Negative Nelly, I really do, but the elaborate rollout of the new co-restaurant critics at The New York Times does nothing but reinforce the “criticism is dead” argument. [ NYT]
I’m here for Dakota Johnson’s “Hey, did you realize that I’m incredibly hot?” breakup tour-slash-promotion for Materialists. Can’t wait to see the movie this weekend. Congrats to her stylist, Kate Young. [ W]
Jeremy Allen White is now repping Louis Vuitton as a brand ambassador. Of course, his stylist, “Sweet Baby” Jamie Mizrahi, also works with Louis Vuitton on various projects. She does a good job with him (this is what we call synergy). [ WWD]
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Until tomorrow,
Lauren
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