French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA) is preparing to sell its Christian Lacroix fashion house to a U.S. company, say the Associated Press and European Web and press reports.

According to the Paris magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, LVMH will sell the reportedly unprofitable fashion brand to the Falic Group, a Hollywood, Fla.-based consortium with interests in luxury goods, cosmetics, fragrances, and duty-free retailing (where it’s the second-largest U.S. operator, with over 90 duty free, news and gift stores in U.S. airports and on the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico). It previously bought two California-based cosmetics companies from LVMH. The Group, owned by three brothers, reportedly has annual sales of about $620 million.

According to published reports, LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault is selling the fashion label—which he launched in 1987—as part of a strategy to focus LVMH on those brands with the greatest growth potential.

JCK