LVMH Opposes Fast-Tracking Tiffany’s Suit Over Busted Deal

A pedestrian wearing a protective mask walks past a Tiffany & Co. store near Canton Road in the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Hong Kong, China, on Sunday, July 26, 2020. Having briefly shown signs of recovery in recent months from its deepest recession on record, the Asian financial hub is bracing for its stiffest test yet as a resurgent virus combines with an increasingly uncertain political and financial outlook. Photographer: Roy Liu/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

Jef Feeley and Kim Bhasin, Bloomberg News

Sep 16, 2020

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(Bloomberg) -- LVMH and Tiffany & Co. are escalating their fight over fast-tracking a lawsuit aimed at preventing the owner of bag-maker Louis Vuitton from pulling out of a $16 billion buyout of the luxury jewelry chain.Earlier this week, a judge set Sept. 21 hearing on Tiffany’s request to get an expedited ruling on whether LVMH had proper legal grounds for torpedoing the deal -- purportedly at the request of the French government.Tiffany said Wednesday that LVMH’s filing in Delaware Chancery Court opposing fast-tracking, which wasn’t publicly available after business hours, was another attempt by the would-be buyer to “run out the clock” on the deal. The transaction has a Nov. 24 deadline.“If LVMH were confident in its legal position, it would have no reason to oppose an expedited trial schedule,” Tiffany Chairman Roger Farah said in a statement. LVMH representatives weren’t immediately available to comment on the filing.

Tiffany counters in its court filings that LVMH sought to leverage police-brutality protests in the U.S. and fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic to negotiate a lower deal price.The case is Tiffany & Co. v. LVMH Moet-Hennessy-Louis Vuitton SE, 2020-0768, Delaware Chancery Court (Dover).

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