French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton plans to alter its legal status from that of a French public limited company (‘société anonyme’) to that of a European company.

The decision was made at a board meeting on 30 January 2014 and the proposed statutory change will be submitted to shareholders at the annual general meeting on 10 April.

The company – which had sales of €29.1bn ($39.4bn) last year – says that this transition has already been made by some other major European groups. It adds that European status “better reflects the European and international scope of the LVMH Group”, given that the number of non-French brands in its portfolio has significantly increased in recent years.

After Loewe, Fendi, Pucci, Acqua di Parma, Tag Heuer and Zenith, the group welcomed Hublot in 2008, Bulgari in 2011 and Loro Piana in 2013. According to LVMH, the transformation into a European company will have no impact on governance, head office domicile or stock market listing, and no consequences for shareholders.