The French luxury conglomerate returns the historic perfume house to the entrepreneur who helped relaunch it, marking its second brand divestment in as many years
LVMH has sold the Patou brand back to beauty entrepreneur Dilesh Mehta, who originally sold a majority stake in the house to the luxury group in 2018 before partnering with LVMH to relaunch it in 2019 as a label aimed at a younger consumer. The transaction was completed through Mehta’s holding company, Nirvana Investments, with financial terms of the deal undisclosed.
Mehta first acquired Patou in 2011 through his company Designer Parfums, later bringing LVMH in as a partner to fund the house’s modern revival, a relationship that included appointing creative directors and rebuilding the label’s retail and fragrance presence over the following years. The reversal returns full ownership to Mehta, whose broader portfolio spans owned and licensed brands including Ghost and Cerruti 1881, along with celebrity fragrance lines tied to Ariana Grande and Jennifer Lopez.
The sale marks the latest in a string of LVMH divestments, following last year’s sale of Marc Jacobs to WHP Global, and signals a continued narrowing of the conglomerate’s portfolio toward its highest-performing and most scaled houses. Smaller or younger labels that require sustained investment to reach profitability appear increasingly likely to be returned to the entrepreneurs who built them rather than absorbed indefinitely into LVMH’s broader structure.
As LVMH continues to reassess which houses merit long-term capital and operational attention, the Patou sale suggests a conglomerate strategy focused less on portfolio breadth and more on concentrated strength, a shift worth watching as other mid-sized houses within the group’s stable face similar evaluations.