Rihanna could soon share Fenty Beauty with Jay-Z as his firm moves to buy out LVMH's $1 billion stake

The deal that could make Jay-Z Rihanna's business partner in her most commercially significant venture is moving closer to reality.

MarcyPen Capital Partners, the investment firm backed by Jay-Z, is actively pursuing the acquisition of LVMH's 50 percent stake in Fenty Beauty, the cosmetics brand Rihanna launched with the French luxury group in 2017. Multiple sources familiar with the matter confirm that MarcyPen is evaluating several financing structures and has held discussions with outside investors as it works to put together a transaction that would represent the largest single deal in the firm's history.

LVMH retained investment bank Evercore in October 2025 to explore a sale of its Fenty Beauty stake. The brand generated net sales of approximately $450 million in 2024 and is currently valued at between $1 billion and $2 billion, a significant decline from the $2.8 billion valuation Forbes attributed to it in 2021. The reduction reflects a more competitive prestige makeup landscape and the challenges of sustaining the exceptional growth Fenty achieved in its founding years.

The MarcyPen pursuit is not built from scratch. Jay-Z's firm has existing ties to Rihanna's business ecosystem. Marcy Venture Partners, MarcyPen's predecessor, participated in funding rounds for Savage X Fenty, Rihanna's lingerie brand, in both 2019 and 2022. The firms know each other. The relationships are established. That context makes MarcyPen a strategically coherent buyer in a way that a purely financial acquirer would not be.

MarcyPen was formed in 2024 through the merger of Marcy Venture Partners and Pendulum Opportunities, the investment arm of Pendulum Holdings. The combined entity manages approximately $1.1 billion in assets. Its portfolio includes makeup brand Merit Beauty, period care and skin care brand Rael, and a $500 million Korea-focused fund launched in partnership with South Korean firm Hanwha Asset Management. Earlier in 2026, MarcyPen participated in a $500 million Series E financing for Quince, signalling an appetite for deals well above its historical check size of $5 million to $15 million.

One source described MarcyPen's long-term ambition as building toward the scale and model of TSG Consumer Partners, the consumer-focused private equity firm managing $14 billion in assets with investments across Summer Fridays, Phlur and Dude Wipes. Fenty Beauty, with its global brand recognition and Rihanna's cultural authority behind it, would be the largest and most visible asset in that strategy.

Rihanna retains her 50 percent stake and would continue leading the brand regardless of who acquires LVMH's half. The question the sale process is designed to answer is not whether she remains in control, but who brings the most useful combination of capital, network and strategic alignment alongside her.

Fenty Beauty disrupted the cosmetics industry when it launched in September 2017 with 40 foundation shades, a range that directly challenged the industry's historic underserving of dark-skinned customers. The brand's commercial success contributed significantly to Forbes declaring Rihanna a billionaire in 2021, at which point it cited her Fenty Beauty stake as the primary driver of her $1.4 billion net worth. Her net worth has since been estimated at approximately $1.4 billion, with Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty accounting for the majority of that figure.

LVMH's move to exit the Fenty Beauty stake reflects the broader pressures on the French luxury group. Its first quarter 2026 revenue fell 6 percent year on year to €19.1 billion as consumer spending softened in China and the United States. Bernard Arnault has signalled a strategic focus on concentrating resources around LVMH's crown jewel brands, including Louis Vuitton, Dior and Bulgari, while exploring exits from assets that sit outside that core.

MarcyPen declined to comment on the discussions. LVMH did not respond to requests for comment.