Hermès briefly overtakes LVMH

Hermès briefly overtakes LVMH

“On 15 April 2025 Hermès, maker of the Birkin, closed above LVMH in stock-market value for the first time, because LVMH slumped on weak sales, not because Hermès boomed; the lead changed hands again within days.”

On Tuesday 15 April 2025 Hermès, the French house behind the Birkin and Kelly handbags, passed LVMH to become the most valuable luxury company in the world. The day before, LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, Dior, Tiffany, Sephora and Moët & Hennessy, had reported that its sales in the first three months of the year fell 3% like for like (2% as reported) to €20.3 billion, when analysts had hoped for growth. Its shares dropped 7.8% in one day. Bloomberg caught the first crossing in the morning, with Hermès at €243.65 billion and LVMH at €243.44 billion. At the close in Paris, AFP counted €248.6 billion for Hermès and €244.4 billion for LVMH, which made Hermès the biggest company in France's CAC 40 index and the third biggest in Europe, behind SAP and Novo Nordisk.

It was a smaller event than the headlines said. Hermès did not boom that day: its shares rose 0.2%. LVMH fell, and had been falling. By my count from closing prices, it had lost nearly a third of its stock-market value since 14 February, while Hermès had lost 17% from its record. LVMH still sells more than five times as much (€84.7 billion against €15.2 billion in 2024); the race was only about what investors think each company is worth. Nor did the first lead last. On 17 April Hermès' own sales came in a little below hopes, its shares fell 3.2%, and LVMH was back in front, €242.5 billion to €241.4 billion. By my reckoning, though, Hermès was ahead again at the close from 24 April to 29 July, and on 9 July Challenges magazine ranked the Hermès families, who own two-thirds of the shares, richer than Bernard Arnault. On 30 July LVMH moved ahead, and it has been ahead at every close since, up to October 2026.

Investors preferred Hermès because of how it makes things and who owns it. Each bag is made by one craftsperson from start to finish; its executive chairman, Axel Dumas, has said a bag takes about 15 hours and he will not make it in 13 to raise output, and the group holds the growth of its leather-goods volume to about 6-7% a year, so the waiting lists stay long. The house began in 1837 as a harness-maker's workshop in Paris and moved to 24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1880; the Kelly bag (named for Grace Kelly in 1956) and the Birkin (1984, after Jane Birkin met Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight) grew out of its saddlery. In 2024 Hermès grew sales 15% at constant exchange rates, to €15.2 billion, with a 40.5% operating margin against 23.1% at LVMH. The family still holds 66.7% of the capital, and that goes back to a fight: in October 2010 LVMH revealed it had quietly built a stake of about 17% in Hermès through cash-settled equity swaps. The family pooled its shares in a holding company, H51; the market regulator fined LVMH €8 million in 2013; and in September 2014 a truce brokered by the Paris commercial court made LVMH give its 23.2% to its own shareholders and promise to buy no more for five years.

LVMH's slide came from the other side of the luxury market. Its biggest division, Fashion & Leather Goods, was down 5% in the first quarter and wines and spirits down 9%, after a 14% fall in recurring operating profit in 2024. Its finance chief said that 'aspirational' customers, who stretch to buy one luxury item, are the first to hold back when times are uncertain, and on 2 April President Trump's new tariffs had made times very uncertain. Hermès sells to richer clients and, on 17 April, said it would raise US prices to cover the tariffs. The episode shows that luxury had stopped being one market: after the post-pandemic boom, scarcity and rich customers were rewarded and size and breadth were not. It also shows how fragile such rankings are. A year later, on 15 April 2026, Hermès shares fell 8.2% in a day after its own first-quarter sales were hit by the war in the Middle East.

What happened

  1. 2025

  2. On Tuesday evening LVMH announces its 2024 results: sales of €84.7 billion, down 2% (up 1% on a like-for-like basis), and profit from recurring operations down 14% to €19.6 billion. The shares close 5% lower the next day.

    LVMH headquarters, avenue Montaigne, Paris (No. 22; Maison Dior's flagship is a few doors along at No. 30)

  3. Hermès reports 2024 sales of €15.2 billion, up 15% at constant exchange rates, and a 40.5% operating margin. Its shares close at a record €2,839, a market value of about €300 billion, 'edging closer to LVMH', Bloomberg writes; LVMH is still worth about €357 billion by my count.

    Hermès, 24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris: the flagship, where the house moved its workshops in 1880

  4. At the White House, President Trump announces new tariffs, with a 10% rate on all imports and higher ones on many countries. Luxury stocks fall in Paris the next day: LVMH by 5.6% and Hermès by 3.5% on 3 April.

    White House Rose Garden, Washington: where President Trump announced the global tariffs on 2 April 2025

  5. Mr Trump pauses most of the new tariffs for 90 days but keeps the 10% rate, and raises China's to 125%. Luxury shares bounce when Paris opens on 10 April: LVMH is up 5.2% at the close, Hermès up 3.0%.

  6. After the Paris market has closed, LVMH reports first-quarter sales of €20.3 billion, down 3% like for like (down 2% as reported), where analysts had expected growth of 2%. Fashion & Leather Goods falls 5% and wines and spirits 9%; the United States is 'a slight decline'. Its finance chief says that 'aspirational clientele' is more vulnerable when times are uncertain.

    LVMH headquarters, avenue Montaigne, Paris (No. 22; Maison Dior's flagship is a few doors along at No. 30)

  7. On Tuesday morning LVMH shares fall by more than 8% and Hermès passes it for the first time in market value: €243.65 billion against €243.44 billion, Bloomberg reports.

    Palais Brongniart, Paris: the old stock exchange, where the Paris Bourse traded until 1987 (today's trading is electronic)

  8. At the close in Paris LVMH is down 7.82% and Hermès up 0.2%: Hermès is worth €248.6 billion and LVMH €244.4 billion, AFP calculates. Hermès is now the biggest company in the CAC 40 and the third biggest in Europe after SAP and Novo Nordisk. A Morningstar analyst says LVMH's greater exposure to the lower end of luxury hurts it in a downturn.

    Hermès, 24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris: the flagship, where the house moved its workshops in 1880

  9. Hermès stays ahead at the close, €249.5 billion to €242.7 billion by my count from closing prices and share counts: two sessions in front.

  10. Hermès reports first-quarter sales of €4.13 billion, up 7.2% at constant exchange rates, a little below hopes, and says it will raise prices in the United States to cover the 10% duties; its shares fall 3.2% to €2,287. LVMH, up slightly, regains the lead at the close: €242.5 billion against €241.4 billion. At LVMH's annual meeting Mr Arnault calls 2025 'slightly turbulent'.

    Hermès, 24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris: the flagship, where the house moved its workshops in 1880

  11. Hermès is ahead of LVMH again at the close, €251.8 billion to €249.9 billion, and stays ahead for the next three months.

  12. Challenges magazine's yearly ranking puts the Hermès families, who own two-thirds of the shares, first among French fortunes with €163 billion, ahead of Bernard Arnault's €117 billion, €74 billion less than a year before.

  13. At Sotheby's in Paris the first Birkin, the prototype made for Jane Birkin in the mid-1980s, sells for €8.58 million with fees, a record for a handbag.

  14. LVMH reports first-half sales of €39.8 billion, down 4%, and profit from recurring operations down 15% to €9.0 billion; Mr Arnault speaks of 'solidity' in the 'current context'.

    LVMH headquarters, avenue Montaigne, Paris (No. 22; Maison Dior's flagship is a few doors along at No. 30)

  15. Hermès reports first-half sales of €8.0 billion, up 8% at constant exchange rates, and a 41.4% operating margin, but its shares fall 4.5%. At the close LVMH is back in front, €240.4 billion to €239.6 billion by my count, and stays there at every close after it.

    Hermès, 24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris: the flagship, where the house moved its workshops in 1880