PARIS, Mar 22, 2003/ --- French luxury conglomerate LVMH is expected to announce the disposal of another of its "non-core" businesses. This time the offshoot rumored to be sold is Compagnie Financiere Laflachere, whose chief asset is La Brosse et Dupont.

With LVMH investment fund L Capital as a majority shareholder, La Brosse et Dupont was put up for sale at the beginning of the year. The company, based in the French industrial city of Beauvais, is best known in France as a producer of hair and toothbrushes.

When L Capital, then LV Capital, purchased the family-owned La Brosse et Dupont at the end of 1998, it effectively purchased 51.96 percent of Compagnie Financiere Laflachere, which controls 100 percent of the brush manufacturer. The sale of Laflechere's capital is still in the hands of the Gaillard family, associated financial groups and senior executives at the company.

Rothschild et Cie, which is handling the sale of La Brosse et Dupont, is believed to have selected seven potential buyers for the business, which has a turnover of around 160 million euros. Those possible suitors include ABN Amro Capital France, Legal and General, and the capital investment branch of Societe Generale. LVMH has declined to comment on the sale.

The sale would mark another stage in the shedding of surplus LVMH businesses that in recent months has included the sale of both the Hard Candy and Urban Decay make-up brands. Despite repeated denials from senior figures, rumors still abound about the future of certain brands in the LVMH stable, such as Loewe, Thomas Pink and Celine.