"600 trillion, 200,000 employees" BLACKPINK Lisa's love affair with 'LVMH' group 2nd generation

As BLACKPINK member Lisa became embroiled in dating rumors with the second generation of a French conglomerate, interest in the group ‘LVMH’ is also increasing. The target of Lisa's dating rumor is Frederic Arnault, the son of Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH. He is also the CEO of TAG Heuer, a luxury watch brand.

LVMH is the world's largest luxury consumer goods company headquartered in France. Louis Vuitton, Celine, and Bulgari are all brands of this company. As of the 11th, the market capitalization was 429 billion euros. It is about 610 trillion won in Hanwha. It is the largest company in France by market capitalization, and its market capitalization is higher than that of Samsung Electronics. LVMH owns 75 brands, including fashion, jewelry, watches, perfume, and champagne. It is truly a luxury empire. Last year, sales were 79.2 billion euros (about 112 trillion won). It has 196,000 employees. The target of Lisa's dating rumor is the successor to the world's most luxurious empire.

In the '2023 Billionaire Ranking' announced by Forbes in the United States, Chairman Arno ranked first with a fortune of $211 billion (about 280 trillion won). It is more than second place Elon Musk Tesla CEO ($ 180 billion) and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($ 114 billion).

As a consumer goods company, it is sensitive to trends. Marketing using K-pop stars is always a consideration. In fact, looking at LVMH's sales by region, Asia accounts for 35%, already surpassing the US (27%) and Europe (26%). Korea, Japan, and China are currently the hottest markets, and the Southeast Asian market is also a future food source. There is no choice but to be interested in the entertainment business. For this reason, LVMH actually attracted an investment of $80 million from L Capital Asia, an LVMH affiliate, in 2014. The industry observes that it was around this time that the contact between LVMH and Blankpink began to form.

Even for business reasons, it was an environment where Frederic Arnault had no choice but to be interested in K-pop. He watched the Blackpink concert held last year. He also went to the waiting room of the concert hall and posted a picture taken with Lisa through social media. Since then, dating rumors have spread rapidly as reports of sightings in Paris have been reported.

YG Entertainment is in a position that they cannot confirm the dating rumors. However, while not denying it, fans are responding that they are actually acknowledging it. It doesn't seem easy to express the agency's position on the dating rumors as the contract renewal issue is complicatedly intertwined.

Reporter Kim Ji-won, Ten Asia bella@tenasia.co.kr