MILAN (Reuters) - LVMH's Moët Hennessy and Italy's Campari have agreed to team up to invest in wines and spirits e-commerce companies and create a European ecommerce player in the sector.
In a statement on Monday, the two groups said Campari would transfer its stake in online wines and spirits company Tannico into a newly set up joint venture.
The deal, subject to regulatory clearance, envisages the sale of half the JV's equity capital by Campari to Moët Hennessy for 25.6 million euros ($30 million) in cash, they said.
"While e-commerce was already a growing channel for wines and spirits, the global pandemic has triggered a significant acceleration," Moët Hennessy CEO Philippe Schaus said.
The new venture will be headed by current Tannico CEO Marco Magnocavallo who will remain a key minority shareholder in the business.
Tannico, whose business is 90% B2C, also owns a majority stake in Ventealapropriete.com, an e-commerce platform selling premium wines and spirits in France.
Tannico and Ventealapropriete.com generated pro-forma combined sales of more than 70 million euros last year.
($1 = 0.8434 euros)