Whp-Global

Three New York licensors that built their reputations on bankruptcy-court rescues now own Off-White, Marc Jacobs, Reebok, Champion and Ted Baker — a brand management firms luxury portfolio worth roughly $50 billion in combined retail sales that did not exist on the books of Authentic Brands Group, WHP Global or Bluestar Alliance a decade ago. The trade press still files these companies under “licensing”, as though they were the people who sold you a Polo Ralph Lauren towel set in 2004. They are not. Between February 2020 and May 2026 the three firms wrote cheques for Reebok ($2.5B+), Champion ($1.2B), Marc Jacobs (joint venture with G-III Apparel), Ted Baker (£211M) and Off-White (undisclosed, but with LVMH on the other side of the table), and they did it while the European groups they used to circle from a distance were busy selling. ...

On 14 May 2026, LVMH sold Marc Jacobs to an $850M joint venture between WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group, ending a 29-year ownership that began the same year Marc Jacobs was named creative director of Louis Vuitton. The deal closes a chapter of LVMH divestitures that has, since 2020, quietly reshaped the group around three categories — leather goods, jewellery, wines and spirits — while pushing American designer brands, English shirtmakers, and minority creative-founder stakes out of the portfolio. The story is not the Marc Jacobs sale on its own. The story is the pattern: LVMH bought Tiffany, backed Phoebe Philo, and lined itself up for Giorgio Armani while shedding Off-White, Thomas Pink, Stella McCartney, and now Marc Jacobs in roughly eighteen months. ...