L’Officiel Sold to Hong Kong-based AMTD International – WWD

Hong Kong-based financial services company AMTD International has acquired French magazine publisher L’Officiel from the Jalou family for an undisclosed amount.

As part of the deal, Benjamin Eymère will continue to serve as chief executive officer of L’Officiel and has also been appointed director of AMTD’s metaverse, a new role in which he will be responsible for driving change. AMTD’s new take on the metaverse space.

Christopher Brown, founder of Global Emerging Markets, an investment firm that has backed Jalou Media, and Marie-José Jalou, president of Financière Jalou, will continue to serve as co-chairs of L’Officiel’s board, along with L’Officiel. Dr. Calvin Choi, founder of AMTD, as the new chairman of the board of directors.

“Our goal is to demonstrate AMTD International’s leadership in the fields of multimedia culture and entertainment, as well as multimedia investment banking,” said Eymère.

AMTD International Group expansion plans to establish L’Officiel presence in Hong Kong, Macau, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Switzerland and Netherlands in the coming months. It also reveals the opening of the AMTD x L’Officiel land in The Sandbox, a virtual metaverse. Called “Fashion Skin,” the project will include a virtual clothing collection available for the metaverse, developed by applying artificial intelligence to L’Officiel’s fashion image database. .

William Fung, CEO of AMTD International, added: “AMTD International prides itself on innovation and provides leading edge products and services to our customers. The successful acquisition of L’Officiel demonstrates our ambition and commitment to further diversifying our business and capabilities.”

The sale comes at a difficult time for L’Officiel, which has been accused of not paying freelancers in many markets. In the United States, where it has L’Officiel USA, the situation culminated when it was sued by New York City. Earlier this week, L’Officiel announced that it made a formal offer of settlement to New York City in December and is “currently in discussions with the city to finalize a settlement.” A spokesperson for New York City did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the lawsuit, the city argues that the affected freelancers, and the city as a whole, were injured as a direct result of L’Officiel’s actions and that the city was entitled to relief measures under orders, civil penalties, and any other appropriate relief, while injured freelancers receive double damages.

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