MARC HASENFUSS: Pickings could be richer at Richemont
The most encouraging news is that Yoox Net-a-Porter managed double-digit growth across all business lines and regions
Investors paying close attention to the modernisation of luxury brands conglomerate Richemont might be disappointed that online retail — including Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP) and the recently acquired Watchfinder — represented about 16% of group sales in the year to end-March. While this is an improvement on the interim stage, when online sales were 13% of total revenue, it is slightly behind CFO Burkhart Grund’s earlier estimate that online sales would represent around 17% of revenue at the end of financial 2019. If punters felt let down because the online sales portion was not higher, there might be some comfort in knowing this thrust was edging closer to break-even. Hmmm … not quite. Though Richemont disclosed low double-digit revenue growth for the new online distributors at €2.1bn, a loss of €264m was posted at bottom line. This did, however, include €165m on the amortisation of intangible assets as well as investments in technology, communication and new distribution platforms. T...
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