May 22 (Reuters) - French Luxury group LVMH is

to deepen its partnership with Alibaba ( BABA ) to leverage the

firm's cloud and artificial intelligence capacities and boost

its presence in China, it said on Wednesday.

"The reinforcement of our partnership will help us to

further accelerate our omni-channel business growth," said

Stephane Bianchi, group managing director of LVMH, referring to

various shopping avenues both in-store and online.

LVMH, the world's biggest luxury group, and the Chinese

e-commerce giant first forged a partnership in 2019. The

reinforced ties come as luxury companies redouble efforts to

cater to shoppers in China, where demand has been dampened by a

property crisis and high youth unemployment.