Store closures and travel restrictions dent LVMH's first-half profit

The world's biggest luxury goods group missed analysts' estimates by 28% reporting a €1.67bn profit in the first half of the year

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's leading luxury group, reported a 27% decline in first half revenue and a net profit of €544 million as a result of store closures and travel restrictions.Show more

LVMH’s customers are curbing purchases of high-end fashion faster than the company can cut costs, and that is hitting the Louis Vuitton owner’s profit.

The French luxury conglomerate’s profit from recurring operations totaled €1.67 billion (Dh7.2bn/$1.96bn) in the first half, less than the €2.32bn analysts expected. The shares fell as much as 4 per cent early Tuesday in Paris.

With boutiques shut down worldwide and international tourism largely halted, revenue fell 38 per cent on an organic basis in the three months through June, the company said in a statement on Monday. Chief financial officer Jean-Jacques Guiony said LVMH slashed operating costs by 29 per cent.

“LVMH showed relative resilience at the revenue level in the first half of the year,” said Luca Solca, an analyst at Bernstein. “On the profit side, it’s obvious that it’s not been able to slash costs with the same pace as the revenue decline due to the fixed-cost base.”

LVMH follows Richemont and Burberry in reporting what analysts expect will be the industry’s worst quarter ever because of the pandemic. The company cited signs of recovery across several businesses in June and a particularly strong rebound in China, and said it expects further improvement in July.

The company reacted “swiftly to the adverse situation,” Mr Guiony said on a call with analysts. “We expect to keep the cost base under control.”

Mr Guiony said in an interview with Le Figaro that LVMH still expects to respect the contract signed for its planned purchase of jeweller Tiffany & Co.

"Tiffany's results are clearly affected by the crisis," he told Le Figaro. "That said, we have signed a contract and we will respect it."

Mr Guiony told analysts on the call that LVMH is still waiting for about half a dozen antitrust approvals for the Tiffany deal, adding that “things are moving forward.”

Sales at LVMH’s fashion and leather goods unit, which includes top brand Louis Vuitton, fell 37 per cent in the quarter. Analysts expected a 38 per cent decline. Louis Vuitton management increased prices globally by 5 per cent in late June and early this month, Mr Guiony said.

While shoppers are increasingly turning to online purchases, the luxury industry has notoriously been slow to generate more revenue that way. LVMH noted a “significant acceleration” in online sales in the first half, which only partially offset the store closures.