Louis Vuitton store in Singapore. Image courtesy: Reuters

Four years after choosing Puducherry for its first manufacturing plant in Asia, French luxury goods giant Louis Vuitton has decided to sell its Indian unit to a Chennai-based firm.

Part of the euro 20 billion Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton group, the French company's Indian back office subsidiary is known as Les Ateliers De Pondicherry (LADP). The new owners of LADP are likely to be Leather Crafts India, sources said. Louis Vuitton's decision to sell the unit comes as a blow not only to Puducherry's reputation but also to India's image as a competitive cost destination. The prospect of a change of management sparked labour unrest with the 200-odd Indian employees on LADP's rolls going on strike since June 13 demanding that the firm regularize their services before winding up its operations and handing over the unit to the new owners.

LADP has two plants—one in Kurumbapet here and the other in Perambai in Tamil Nadu—to manufacture leather components for Louis Vuitton products. The management made a formal announcement about exiting India on June 13, which triggered the labour problem. Sources said that LADP was set up jointly by Louis Vuitton and the Puducherry-based leather fashion brand HiDesign. HiDesign did not take a stake in LADP but Louis Vuitton took a 5% stake in HiDesign. Messages to HiDesign CEO Dilip Kapur went unanswered.

LADP, which had regularized the services of its administrative staff, had not confirmed the 240 workers on its rolls in the last four years.

Author: Bosco Dominique & Nandini Sen Gupta

The richest man in the world, Carlos Slim recently gave the city of Mexico a culturally rich gift - an art museum. The mansion Slim, the Mexican Telecom tycoon lives in has proved to be small for his collection of 66,000 that contains some very rare pieces. The gleaming building, using modern architecture is already being praised as a landmark in the country's capital.
 
So what if Shahjahan built the Taj Mahal is memory of his wife, Carlos Slim has invested more than $800 million (approx Rs 3600 crore) in his new Soumaya Museum which is a metallic, six-storey structure shaped like an hourglass. The museum is named after Slim's late wife, Soumaya.

Inside the museum, a bronze cast of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, which is also apparently one of Slim's favourite works of art, dominates the open lobby. There is a colourful mural pointing toward the bathrooms, the last mural by Diego Rivera. His vast collection of 66,000 pieces is dominated by European artists, including Van Gogh, El Greco, Matisse, Degas and Picasso.
 
Also there's a large section reserved for religious art. A Spanish painting of the Virgin of Toledo hangs besides a Mexican portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Image courtesy: Reuters

Image courtesy: Royal salute

Whisky connoisseurs have reason to rejoice. Luxury whisky brand Royal Salute launched Tribute to Honour, the most luxurious, and obviously, the most expensive Scotch whisky ever produced.

Only 21 bottles of this fine Scotch whisky have been produced; each bottle costs about $200,000 (approx Rs 90 lakh).

The new whisky takes its name from the Honours of Scotland, which are the Scottish Crown Jewels and the oldest crown jewels of the British Isles.

See the world’s most expensive whiskies here.

Royal Tribute

The Tribute to Honour whisky is blended by Royal Salute's master blender, Colin Scott, who has used the rarest and the most precious whiskies, all with a minimum age of 45 years. All the rare whiskies used were found in the Royal Salute Vault at Strathisla Distillery in Scotland. The blend is so rare that nearly all of it was required to fill up the 21 bottles.

The bottle has been designed by Stephan Webster, creative director at Garrard jewellers. The bottle is decorated with 413 diamonds totaling 22 carats, set into three symbols of Scottish power - the Sceptre, the Sword and the Crown. French porcelain maker Revol produced 400 jet-black porcelain bottles before Royal Salute settled on 21 perfect samples.

Click here to see Royal Salute’s luxury lounge at Delhi’s airport.

Via Justluxe

What We Like: Versace’s Eon Ellipse

Why We Like It: The new Eon Ellipse watch launched by Versace gets its name from the elliptical shape of it’s outer ring. With Roman numerals on one side and the emblematic Greek logo on the other, the watch has its own personality. An intricate guilloche sunray pattern with a Medusa logo on a black or white enamel decorated bezel adds to the watch’s charm.

It is available with eight variations. Rose-gold plated finished stainless steel watchcase, black or white alligator watchstrap, and a metal bracelet made up of tiny beads are a few of them. But the original piece with a gilded dial and diamond embedded bezel makes  a perfect jeweled timepiece.

Available at Versace Boutique, The Trident Hotel, Mumbai and Prime, Oberoi Mall, Mumbai; price: Rs. 1,26,800.

Patrizio Bertelli and designer Miuccia Prada. Image courtesy: Reuters

Italian fashion label Prada has found very few retail subscribers for its shares listed on Hong Kong's stock market. Prada has just launched its HK$2.6 billion (approx Rs 1494 crore) IPO.

Retail investors are lively players in IPOs launched on Hong Kong's stock exchange, especially for popular consumer brands, and usually about 10 percent of shares in IPOs are set aside for them.

However, retail demand for Prada's shares have been tepid, with brokers blaming the 12.5 per cent capital gains tax payable in Italy as the main culprit. Many investors have withdrawn margin financing orders to buy Prada shares, several retail brokers in Hong Kong told Reuters.

Alfred Chan, chief dealer at Cheer Pearl Investment was quoted saying that his company had received little demand from (retail) clients for the (Prada) shares, saying that the 12.5 per cent tax had scared them away, as much as the high share price, which itself was expensive when it compared with peers. 

Interestingly, Prada has drawn stronger interest from fund managers wanting exposure to the company's strong growth prospects, particularly in Asia.

Founded in 1913, the company is 95 per cent owned by designer Miuccia Prada and her husband Patrizio Bertelli and will stay controlled by the pair. They plan to float around 20 per cent. Prada intends to use the funds to repay debt and open more stores.

Source: Reuters

Lakshmi Mittal, Britain's richest man (he has an estimated fortune of £29.8 billion), has landed himself quite a cool deal for the upcoming London Olympic games. He'll have access to 320 prime seats a day, in return for the services provided to Games organizers, Locog. And he'll get naming rights to the landmark Orbit Tower, being designed especially for the Olympics.

Anish Kapoor alongside a miniature of 'The ArcelorMittal Orbit'

Olympic Deal
Basically, Mittal's company, ArcelorMittal, has signed a deal with Locog, which allows Games sponsors to rent out the Orbit Tower during the 2012 Olympic Games. The 115-metre tower, commissioned by London mayor Boris Johnson, is being designed by Indian-born British sculptor, Anish Kapoor. The tower is in a major spot between the stadium and the aquatics centre. It also has a restaurant and viewing platforms.

Eventually (after the Games), the Orbit Tower will be rechristened 'ArcelorMittal Orbit'.  Mittal has received lifetime naming rights after giving £10million (approx Rs 72 crore) towards the cost of the tower, and an additional £9.6million (approx Rs 69 crore) loan. The tower will cost £22.3million (approx Rs 162 crore) to construct.

Also, ArcelorMittal, along with seven other 'tier two' Games sponsors, including Cadbury, Deloitte and UPS, has paid between £20million-£40million (approx Rs 290 crore) to use the Olympic brand and buy up to 5,000 tickets. Tier one sponsors, who have paid Locog between £40million-£80million (approx Rs 581 crore), are allowed to buy up to 7,000 tickets. On the whole, sponsors will take eight per cent of the 8.8million tickets, including some of the prime seats.

Image courtesy: Reuters

Barclays Bank has just published its 2011 Wealth Insights report. And one aspect dealt the personalities of individuals and how that affected their financial risk taking abilities.

In an interesting interpretation of the Barclay’s Wealth report, Wall Street Journal writer Robert Frank asked whether the rich were rich because they took risks, or whether they took risks and so became rich.

The Barclays report suggests that HNIs with more than $15 million were more likely to have a higher risk tolerance, as compared to those with a lower net worth  – 57 per cent  said that in order to achieve high returns, they were willing to choose high risk investments and 51 per cent described themselves as high risk takers.  One factor that may encourage higher networth individuals to take bigger risks, suggests the report, is that having a greater reserve of wealth creates a safety buffer.

However, writers of the report also stated that they noticed that those “with higher risk tolerance have a greater need for financial discipline.”

The other results of this study showed that men took more risks while investing than women, and Asians took more risks than those from other regions.

Sachin Tendulkar may have missed the tour to the West Indies but he's hardly got the time to rest despite being firmly ensconced in Mumbai.

The sudden window in his busy calendar has put the master blaster's plan to shift from La Mer to his Perry Cross Road bungalow in top gear.

Other than some of the heavy furniture that will be moved from Tendulkar's old apartment, the interiors of his dream home are complete.

A special puja was held on June 11, and most of his close friends expect the invitation for the housewarming party to arrive pretty soon.

Click here to take a tour of more celebrity homes.

Here's what Tendulkar's new house looks like:

• While it might look like a three-floor house from the outside, Tendulkar's home is actually spread across five floors. One and a half floors are below ground, possibly because of height restrictions - as the bungalow falls in CRZ II zone.

• The lower basement contains the car park and security set up, while the upper basement houses the kitchen and the servants' quarters.

• The ground floor has a massive sitting and dining area which will also have a special area to display cricket mementoes and memorabilia. The children will occupy the floor above, while the top floor will have Sachin and Anjali's bedroom.

• The bungalow had been bought by Sachin at a jaw-dropping Rs 39 crore and has been revamped by architect Prakash Sapre.

Source: Mumbai Mirror; images: BCCL

Rooftops in Paris. Image courtesy: Reuters

Prices of luxury residential spaces in Paris have risen the fastest lately. This is probably because of buyers from emerging markets who competed for a limited number of properties, a Knight Frank report stated.

The values of houses and apartments that are worth more than 2 million euros has increased about 22 percent in the Paris, and according to the Knight Frank report, it is buyers from the BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China - who are increasingly looking to Paris as a safe haven to invest funds in a mature and high-performing market, the report claims.

Seconding the French capital is Hong Kong with a 15 per cent rise and third place was bagged by Helsinki with 12 per cent. Shanghai and Beijing were among the top five.
 
Knight Frank deals in global property transactions, management and advisory services.
 
Here's the 15 Prime Global Cities Index by Knight Frank:

1. Paris
2. Hong Kong
3. Helsinki
4. Shanghai
5. Beijing
6. London
7. Singapore
8. Zurich
9. Kiev
10. Geneva
11. Monaco
12. St Petersburg
13. New York (Manhattan)
14. Los Angeles
15. Moscow

Above: Mallika arrives for the engagement. Image courtesy: BCCL

Mallika and Siddharth Reddy's sangeet in Hyderabad may have been a Bollywood extravaganza, but when it came to the shaadi, the Reddys decided to go all traditional.

The bride and groom, resplendent in their designerwear - Mallika in a gold sari and Siddharth in an embroidered sherwani - were at the centre of one of the biggest and fattest weddings in the past few months. Of course, the glitterati were still there in full force.

Guestlist
Industrialist Anil Ambani came in with his youngest son and hung around for a long time. South star Chiranjeevi was dapper in a traditional dress. However, the only star from Tollywood to have made it to the wedding was actor Mahesh Babu and wife Namrata, since the others are busy with CCL. Sridevi and husband Boney Kapoor came in with their daughters, Khushi and Jhanvi. Sri and her girls wore colour-coordinated outfits. Vyjayanthimala Bali even commented that Sri's eldest daughter is the next star in the making.

The mandap was tastefully done up in red velvet and gold. There was a separate VIP enclosure where the stars were chilling out while other guests sat at the mandap, watching the wedding. Shah Rukh Khan came in at around 10pm and stayed for 45 minutes, mostly in the VIP enclosure. He chatted with Yash Chopra while there. Shashi Tharoor chose the company of his wife, Sunanda, and her friends - Pooja Bedi and Farah Khan Ali. Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha zoomed in and left immediately after wishing the couple.

Traditional Decor
Designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla designed not only the outfits for the family, but also the mandap, which had chandeliers made of jasmine flowers, filling the air with their fragrance. There were elaborate seating arrangements in yellow, and a running elephant motif which was seen everywhere. A group from Mumbai put up a classical dance performance which was a mix of Kuchipudi, Kathakali, Bharatnatyam and Dandiya. The lavish spread was vegetarian, and the bride's parents - Sanjay and Pinky Reddy - were seen receiving guests all through the evening.


Written by: Sarah Salvadore

Yet another billionaire wedding is going to unfold this weekend. GVK Group's GV Krishna Reddy's granddaughter Mallika (daughter of Pinky and Sanjay Reddy) will marry Siddharth, son of Indu Group's Indukuri Syam Prasad Reddy in what promises to be a lavish wedding.

The India Express reports that 5,000 wedding invites - costing Rs 5,000 each or Rs 2.5 crore in total - have already been sent out.

Hema Malini is set to perform at the mehendi and sangeet, while Shah Rukh Khan is charging Rs 2 crore to perform a small skit. Priyanka Chopra and Mallika Sherawat, who are reported to dance at the Reddy wedding, will take home Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh respectively. Vivek Oberoi will play MC.

Khan Wars at Reddy Wedding?

A source told The Times of India that Shah Rukh, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan were not keen on bumping into one another at the Reddy wedding. 

The paper reported: While chartered flights have been arranged to ferry guests from Mumbai and Delhi for the big day, a special air-taxi service has been arranged exclusively for the Khans and Bachchans. These air-taxis are not part of the fleet carrying other guests. Justifying the need for separate flights for each of the Khans, our source says, all three of them haven't given the hosts a particular time so far, so we are assuming they are arriving at different times. Hence the air taxis. These special flights have been kept on standby to take off in an hour's notice.

Image courtesy: BCCL

Industrialist Sandeep Jajodia has bought a house in a tony part of south Delhi for Rs 170.18 crore for his family's use, and this turns out to be the latest in the hard-to-crack world of bulge-bracket property deals.

Property market experts say this deal is proof that prices in the super-rich segment continue to trend higher even as signs of a slowdown are emerging in the low and mid-tier segments because of rising interest rates and waning economic confidence.

The hefty price tag - at about Rs 80,000 a square foot - for the bungalow built on a 2,000-square-yard plot in the Capital's posh Shanti Niketan area confirms the adage that when it comes to the wealthy, location and personal preferences override economic cycles.

In Demand
The flamboyant head of sponge iron maker Monnet Ispat & Energy sealed the deal for the bungalow last month, outbidding several high-profile bidders that included a top Delhi-based builder, an hotelier, an Infrastructure & Power Company, and a London-based NRI.

He has also paid an additional stamp duty of Rs 10.21 crore for the property, a person familiar with the transaction said. The Jajodias can build up to 29,000 sq ft on the plot, including about 7,400 sq ft of basement space.

The property purchased by Jajodia had been sub-leased to the sellers, the Ghosh family, by the Government Servant's Cooperative House Building Society in 1968 for Rs 72,000. It was converted into a freehold property before the sale to Jajodia some two weeks ago. The deal has been part-financed by HDFC Bank to the tune of Rs 100 crore, the person said.

Jajodia, 43, confirmed to ET that he had bought the house, but declined to give details. The house is near his present home in the same locality, a short drive from the ultra-posh Lutyens' bungalow zone that is home to high-profile businessmen and top politicians and where such multihundred-crore-rupee deals are the norm. Property brokers say the deal would easily rank among the priciest in the Capital and compares with rates normally prevalent in Mumbai, where apartments in some marquee buildings have changed hands for more than Rs 1 lakh a square foot.

Written by: Ravi Teja Sharma