Luxury goods group LVMH’s sales rose 9 per cent in the fourth quarter as shoppers in Europe and the United States splurged over the crucial holiday season, helping partly to offset Covid-19 disruptions in China.
Sales at the world’s biggest luxury group reached €22.7 billion (S$32.4 billion) in the final three months of the year, with the 9 per cent increase on an organic basis a touch above analyst expectations for 7 per cent growth, based on a consensus cited by UBS.
This marked a deceleration from the 20 per cent growth recorded in the first nine months of the year, due to the hit in China from lockdowns and its subsequent exit from a zero-Covid policy, which has spurred a surge of infections in the world’s second-largest economy.
“China was sharply down in the fourth quarter,” the group’s finance chief, Mr Jean-Jacques Guiony, told reporters.
He said the pandemic had “spread like wildfire” after the Beijing authorities relaxed travel curbs in December, causing problems in warehouses, stores and distribution networks.
“Everybody was sick – it is as simple as that,” he said. The situation had, however, markedly improved since the beginning of the year.