Ultra-luxury hoteliers can expect new competition from French luxury goods company LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the Wall Street Journal reports.

LVMH also said it created LVMH Hotel Management to “oversee the group’s activities in the luxury hotel sector” and to “maximise the value of its brands,”.

Two new hotels, named Cheval Blanc after LVMH’s vineyard, are currently being built in Oman and Egypt and are proposed to open in 2012.

The Maison Cheval Blanc in Oman is on the 11 square- kilometer island of Al Sodah and includes 32 private villas, LVMH said.

Former online shopping portal eLuxury, which closed last year, has been transformed into a web magazine called Nowness, officially launching Feb 25.

According to the site’s owner, French luxe conglomerate LVMH, Nowness will be covering the fields of fashion, art, design, culture, travel, beauty, food and wine, music, and entertainment.

In the run-up to its proper launch, the new web destination has been running a special story each day, including sneak peeks behind the scenes at Dior or recent New Generation winner Peter Pilotto.

Despite the economic crisis, 2009 ended better than it began for the French luxury goods sector, thanks largely to China’s growing taste for high-end products, encouraging thoughts of a better 2010.

Following the trend set by other global luxury brands, Hermes and LVMH announced fourth quarter sales growth on Thursday and Friday, suggesting the worst of the crisis could be over for the sector.

After announcing that annual profits fell 13 percent to 1.7 billion euros (2.3 billion dollars), LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault said he was pleased with “record” sales figures for December, which he said would “grow in January”.

Former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair is set to take on a highly-paid advisory role at at luxury goods group LVMH.

Blair is understood to be in the final stages of negotiating a six-figure pay package at the group, which is owned by France’s richest man Bernard Arnault.

Blair already gets £2.5m from the U.S. investment bank JP Morgan and a further £2million as an adviser with the finance firm Zurich.

Former online shopping portal eLuxury, has been transformed into a web magazine called Nowness, due to be up and running by beginning of January.

According to the site’s owner, French luxe conglomerate LVMH, Nowness will be covering the fields of fashion, art, design, culture, travel, beauty, food and wine, music, and entertainment.

LVMH has bought a 50% stake in St-Emilion’s Château Cheval Blanc from its billionaire chairman and controlling shareholder, Bernard Arnault.

However financial terms were not disclosed in the release, which pointedly failed to mention that LVMH was acquiring the Bordeaux wine from Arnault.

Arnault, reputedly France’s richest man, bought Cheval-Blanc with Belgian businessman Albert Frère in 1998 for a reported €155m.