Weil Gotshal & Manges and Baker McKenzie are advising on the sale of hotel and leisure company Belmond to luxury retail giant Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH).

Belmond, a consortium company of owners, part-owners and managers of 46 luxury hotel, restaurant, train and river cruise properties, will be bought by LVMH for $3.2bn (£2.6bn). The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019.

The sale will consolidate LVMH's foothold in the hotel industry, adding to its industry portfolio. It already owns Cheval Blanc in the Courchevel ski resort in the French Alps, as well as the Bulgari hotels.

Weil Gotshal is advising Belmond, with the US firm's team led by M&A and private equity partner Michael Aiello, accompanied by M&A partner Sachin Kohli, both of whom work in the firm's New York office.

Bakers is advising LVMH, with relationship partner Stephane Davin understood to be leading the firm's team, accompanied by corporate partners Craig Roeder and Tom Hughes from the Chicago office, and Paris corporate partner Francois Xavier Naime. 

The international firm has acted on several high-profile M&A mandates in recent months. Last month, it advised longstanding client Unilever on its acquisition of GlaxoSmithKline's healthcare nutrition arm for £3.1bn, and earlier this year it acted for part of the consortium of investors mulling a multibillion-pound takeover of shopping centre owner Intu Properties.

Italy's BonelliErede has been a longstanding legal adviser to LVMH, and in 2011 advised on its £3.2bn takeover of Italian jeweller Bulgari, as well as its purchase of a €2bn stake in Italian cashmere producer Loro Piana in 2013.