Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA said Friday that its first-half sales rose, but earnings missed analysts’ expectations.
The Swiss luxury-goods group reported CFR, +0.00% net profit of 869 million euros ($961.2 million) for the period to Sept. 30. This was down from EUR2.25 billion the year previous, when Richemont booked an extraordinary gain of EUR1.38 billion after purchasing online luxury retailer Yoox Net-a-Porter. Excluding this gain, net profit was broadly stable, Richemont said.
The result fell short of analysts’ expectations of EUR971 million, according to a consensus estimate provided by FactSet.
The owner of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels said sales for the first half of fiscal 2020 rose 9% to EUR7.4 billion, slightly lower than analysts’ expectations of EUR7.49 billion according to a FactSet estimate. At constant exchange rates, sales grew by 6%, Richemont said.
Sales growth was powered by the company’s online distributors, which grew 32%, and jewelry division, where sales rose 8%, Richemont said. By region, sales in Japan surged 21% as shoppers purchased more ahead of a VAT tax hike. Sales in Asia Pacific, Richemont’s largest region, rose 7%, with strong growth in China and Korea offsetting a double-digit decline in the Hong Kong region.
“Global events are beyond our control and while we have remained responsive to market challenges, we have also continued to invest in our Maisons, reinforcing our long term approach to developing Richemont’s businesses,” said Richemont Chairman Johann Rupert.
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