Jay-Z announced this week that he was selling his Armand de Brignac champagne brand to the wine and spirits division of luxury goods behemoth LVMH—and personally raked in more than $300 million from the blockbuster bubbly deal, according to Forbes.
The deal appears to have valued the brand, Armand de Brignac, at more than $600 million, which would land him a cash payment of at least $300 million—about $50 million more than he would have made based on the $500 million value he rapped about in Meek Mill’s 2018 song “What’s Free.”
The founder of RocNation sold 50% of the champagne business to LVMH’s Moët Hennessy in a move aimed at “taking the business to new heights across the world,” according to Moet’s CEO Philippe Schaus. LVMH is known to bid competitively, and that certainly appears to have been true for this latest deal.
Jay-Z’s bubbly brand—also known as “Ace of Spades” due to its logo design and references in the rapper’s lyrics hyping it—was estimated to be worth “roughly $630 million” by Forbes, based on conversations with beverage analysts and industry insiders.
The terms of the deal have not been publicly reported by LVMH or Jay-Z, the “first billionaire rapper” whose company will still handle production of Armand de Brignac. But Jay-Z, who recently launched a cannabis line, likely pocketed at least $315 million in the champagne deal.
But as Forbes points out, it’s not the only lucrative celebrity booze deal that caused investors to pop corks in celebration. That lofty title is still held by George Clooney and his partners, who sold Casamigos tequila to British liquor giant Diageo in 2017 for an estimated $1 billion.
Meanwhile, in other Jay-Z mogul news, Square reached a deal with the hip-hop icon to take control of Tidal in an attempt to rejuvenate the struggling music streaming service.
The Jack Dorsey-led financial services firm will pay $297 million in cash and stock for a “significant majority ownership stake” in Tidal, which Jay-Z bought for $56 million in 2015. Jay-Z will also join Square’s board of directors once the deal closes in the second quarter of this year, the company said.
