Cartier owner Richemont Q3 sales up 10%, China weakness remains

Cartier owner shares Richemont The luxury group rose on Thursday after it reported a 10% rise in fiscal third-quarter sales, even as Chinese demand weighed.

Sales at constant exchange rates rose to 6.2 billion euros ($6.38 billion) in the three months to the end of December, in what the Swiss luxury brand called its “highest ever” quarterly sales figure. That was well above the 1% rise expected by analysts in a consensus cited by RBC, according to Reuters.

Richemont shares were up 17.15% at 8:10 a.m. London time.

Other luxury stocks Christian Dior, LVMH and Hermes The results rose in a positive signal for the health of Europe’s luxury sector during the shopping period.

Richemont reported double-digit growth in all regions except Asia Pacific, where sales fell 7%, with the combined regions of mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau down 18%.

China, once a key driver of luxury demand, has dealt a major blow to the sector as it struggles to emerge from a macroeconomic downturn following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Swiss company’s share price has faced a volatile rally over the past year amid a weakening of senior management and broader volatility in the luxury market.

Stocks jumped at the May appointment new CEO Nicolas Bosformer head of the group’s Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry brand. Shares are currently up 28.75% year-to-date.

The results indicate a return to growth for the company, which reported a 1% year-over-year decline first half sale by September, citing a challenging macroeconomic backdrop and tighter conditions in China. Sales for that six-month period amounted to 10.1 billion euros.

The high-end group had until then been sidelined in a wider luxury recession, the report said full year sales in May.

Luca Solca, senior global luxury goods analyst at Bernstein, said Thursday’s results provided a positive early signal for the broader luxury sector’s return to health.

Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, excluding greater China, “both saw strong sequential advances on higher domestic demand and strong tourist flows, while the Americas continue to be driven by strong domestic demand,” Solca said.

“We take this as an encouraging sign and confirmation that – as the market has expected in recent weeks – 24Q3 could be in a hurry,” he added, referring to the calendar for the third quarter through September.

Citi analysts added that they expected the strong results to “support Richemont shares and the wider luxury sector, which has fallen out of favor over the past 18 months”.