Richemont
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Compagnie Financière Richemont SA is a Swiss luxury goods company that was founded in 1988 by the South African billionaire businessman, Anton Rupert. It has four main business areas: jewellery, watches, writing instruments and clothing. The company is listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange (ticker: CFR). It is the eighth biggest company in the SMI (Swiss Market Index). As of 2005, it is the third-largest luxury goods company in the world by turnover, behind LVMH and PPR, its two main competitors in the luxury goods market.
[edit] Companies
Principal companies in the group are:
- Cartier - jewellery, watches, etc. French company, watches Swiss made
- Van Cleef & Arpels - jewellery, watches, etc.
- Piaget - jewellery, watches
- Vacheron Constantin - watches, Swiss made
- A. Lange & Söhne - watches, made in Saxony
- Jaeger-LeCoultre - watches, Swiss made
- Officine Panerai - watches, Swiss made, Italian heritage
- International Watch Co - watches, Swiss made, American-founded
- Baume et Mercier - watches
- Montblanc - German writing instrument manufacturer
- Alfred Dunhill, Ltd.
- Lancel
- Chloé
- Old England
- James Purdey & Sons
- Montegrappa - Italian writing instrument manufacturer
All companies, except Old England SA, are fully owned subsidiaries. In addition to the above companies, Richemont has an 18.5% (as at September, 2005) investment in British American Tobacco; about 40% of the Richemont balance sheet is BAT ordinary shares.
[edit] Former companies
- Hackett - Richemont acquired Hackett in 1992. It was announced in early June 2005 that Richemont had sold Hackett to Torreal, a Spanish investment company.
