Novo Nordisk Surpasses LVMH to Become Europe’s Largest Listed Company

Danish pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk overtook world luxury leader LVMH at the close of Friday’s session.

Last Friday, the Danish pharmaceutical laboratory Novo Nordisk pulled off a masterstroke by surpassing the market capitalization of LVMH, the French luxury giant, establishing its position as Europe’s largest listed company. According to Factset, the market capitalization of Novo Nordisk reached 2,934 billion Danish kroner, or approximately €393.7 billion at the end of the session, thus exceeding the €389.5 billion from LVMH.

Novo Nordisk’s rise to prominence has been spectacular, impressing investors for several months. Its recent quarterly results were fueled by exceptional growth in sales of its obesity treatments, recording an increase of 157% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period of the previous year. This impressive growth also led the company to revise its annual revenue forecast upwards in early August. Currently ranked 17th globally by market capitalization, Novo Nordisk is just behind JPMorgan Chasefar behind the giant Apple which is close to $3 trillion of capitalization.

new leader

For LVMH, this defeat marks the end of its leading position in European market capitalization, which it has held since February 2021. Last January, LVMH had even crossed the symbolic bar of 400 billion euros, a historic fact for a European company. However, since the start of the year, LVMH’s stock has struggled to regain momentum, largely due to the Chinese economic recovery which, after the lifting of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic , fell short of economists’ expectations.

This epic duel between Novo Nordisk and LVMH for the crown of Europe’s largest capitalization shows how fortunes on the stock market can change quickly. LVMH had previously dethroned Nestlé at the beginning of 2021 to become the European market capitalization leader.

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