“What do you expect from a contract with Tony Estanguet? ». Asked by a representative of LVMH shareholders during the general assembly of the luxury group, which was held in Paris on Thursday April 20, the question was enough to reveal in broad daylight the Olympic project that Bernard Arnault is negotiating with the chairman of the committee. organization of Paris 2024. “It is not signed. It is under discussion”replied the CEO and founder of LVMH.
The luxury group could join the quintet of premium sponsors of the sporting event, alongside the telephone operator Orange, Carrefour hypermarkets, the banking group BPCE, EDF and the pharmaceutical group Sanofi. “We will continue to negotiate, it can take a fortnight or it can take six months”declared to the press Antoine Arnault, director of the image of LVMH, at the end of the general assembly.
The stakes are high for the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG). Its budget – 4.4 billion euros at the end of 2022 – must be covered by a contribution from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), ticket sales and amounts from sponsorship contracts. However, since the withdrawal of the oil company TotalEnergies, following the veto of the City of Paris, in 2019, the OCOG has been looking for a fundraiser with such deep pockets to contribute to its sponsorship budget estimated at 1.15 billion euros. This new partner said to be of premium rank must be ready to pay more than 100 million euros. Therefore, signing with LVMH, a group which generated 14.1 billion euros in net income in 2022, would be a breath of fresh air.
“A lot of legal”
And, since this balance of power is favorable to it, LVMH is particularly demanding with regard to its participation. “A negotiation is always complex, especially with foreign organizations or companies, there is a lot of legal issues, discussions in all directions”, formulated Antoine Arnault, Thursday, April 20. The discussions relate in particular to the scope of exposure of the brands of the LVMH group likely to carry out communication operations during the events of the Olympic Games and therefore to appear during the televised broadcasts of the Olympiad between July 26 and August 11, then the Paralympiad from August 28 to September 8.
According to Letter ALVMH executives “wanted to pay the price of a national partnership while obtaining some of the advantages reserved for international deals”. That is to say the contracts that Coca-Cola, Toyota and Airbnb have renewed, counting on a television audience of around 4 billion people in Paris.
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