The shareholders behind Chanel will have pocketed $12.4 billion in payouts from the luxury brand’s earnings over the past three years.
The holding company for Chanel is to receive a $5.7 billion dividend for 2023, the largest annual payout since the maker of expensive tweed ensembles and quilted flap bags began publishing results in London six years ago. This adds to the $1.7 billion for the previous year and $5 billion for 2021, according to filings.
The windfall contributed to a 19% rise in the clan’s net worth over the past year to $108 billion, and about a 26% increase since the 2021 dividend was paid, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The media-shy Wertheimer brothers Alain, 75, and Gerard, 72, are credited with owning equal shares in the closely held company, which they inherited as grandsons of one of the original business partners in Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s perfume operation.
At the same time, the Wertheimers’ family office, Mousse Partners, has been using proceeds to invest in sectors outside of the industry. Last year, the firm headed by half-brother Charles Heilbronn was among a trio of France’s wealthiest dynasties to help take private Rothschild & Co. investment bank.
Mousse Partners has also invested in a wide range of startups including Brightside Health, digital advertising firm Brandtech Group, biotechnology company Evolved by Nature and health-care provider Thirty Madison, according to statements.
Fiparin’s dividend for its stake in the holding amounts for $772 million.