Investors appear unfazed by Richemont’s dismal profit
Richemont’s share price jumped as much as 7.8% on Friday morning despite reporting halved net profit. The luxury brand group’s interim sales fell 13% to €5bn and net profit plunged 51% to €540m in the six months to end-September, its results statement said. The sharp drop in profit was due to one-off costs of €249m, which included inventory buy-backs of slow moving products, chairman Johann Rupert said in his commentary. "Excluding these one-time charges, operating profit would have declined by 25%," Rupert said. Its jewellery "Maisons" — Cartier, Van Cleef and Arpels and Giampiero Bodino — suffered a 13% drop in sales to €2.8bn. Sales at its specialist watchmakers division fell 17% to €1.4bn. "This largely reflected a difficult environment for watches, in particular in the wholesale channel," Richemont said. Its "other" division, which includes Montblanc and various fashion and accessories brands, managed to hold sales nearly flat at €886m, a 1% decline from the matching period’s €...
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