LVMH will reveal details of the first roll-out of E-luxury.com portal next week. Group chief executive Myron Ullman said that the US launch of E-luxury, which will carry LVMH's own top brands such as Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Tag Heuer, is imminent.

Though the portal will carry most of the group's top brands, it will not offer, at least initially, LVMH's wines and spirits products which range from Moët & Chandon champagne and Chteau d'Yquem, one of the world's most expensive wines, through to Hennessy cognac, because of the complex licensing laws in the US.

LVMH is planning to bring E-luxury.com to Europe "subsequent to the US being successful," said Mr Ullman.

Investment in E-luxury.com and the beauty products internet operation Sephora.com is expected to total around €100m this year. The group is also continuing to expand its 300-strong chain of Sephora stores, particularly in the UK.

British expansion will bring Sephora into competition with established departments stores and with Boots - a confrontation not lacking in irony as Sephora used to be the Boots brand name in France.

Mr Ullman remains upbeat about LVMH's prospects for online retailing and shrugs off the fate of Boo.com, in which LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault held an 8% stake through his family holding company Group Arnault.

"It was not a failure because of the internet," said Mr Ullman. "Boo.com tried to do too much and there were too many investors so that when things started to go wrong, there was no one really to step in."

Mr Ullman confirmed that LVMH, which is building up its watches and jewellery division, would be interested in the watch brands which Vodafone acquired when it bought the German group Mannesmann and which are now up for sale.