Baume & Mercier CEO plans management buyout of Richemont brand

Negotiations for a management buyout of the loss-making Richemont brand have reportedly been underway for months. Michael Guenoun, CEO of Baume & Mercier, has assembled a consortium to acquire the watch brand from the Swiss luxury goods group.

This was reported by Glitz, a media outlet specializing in investigative reporting on the international luxury industry. According to the report, an announcement regarding the change of ownership at Baume & Mercier could be made before the end of the year.

Michael Guenoun (left) has only been with Baume & Mercier since June 2024, but had previously worked for Richemont for many years, namely at Cartier and TimeVallée.

Glitz suspects that the talks about a management buyout are related to the promotion of Van Cleef & Arpels CEO Nicolas Bos to group CEO last year. Bos reportedly made his openness to potential offers for Richemont's less successful watch brands quite clear.

According to Glitz, Guenoun was able to convince several major watch retailers to support his takeover bid. These reportedly include the Italian jewelry empire Damiani and several Emirati distributors.

Overall, the group's watch business is weak. For the first half of the current fiscal year 2025/26 (ending September 31), it reported... Richemont a sales decline of 2 percent (currency adjusted).

Other watch brands may therefore be up for sale. The Specialist Watchmakers segment also includes A. Lange & Söhne, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis, and Vacheron Constantin. Only A. Lange & Söhne and Vacheron Constantin are currently said to be truly profitable.