ZURICH (Reuters) -Richemont reported on Friday a shareholders’ net loss of 760 million euros ($776.72 million) during the first half of its financial year after the luxury group took a 2.7 billion euro charge related to its part exit from online fashion retailer YOOX Net-A-Porter (YNAP).
The owner of Cartier jewellery saw its net profit plunge during the six months to the end of September, down from 1.23 billion euros a year earlier, after taking the non-cash charge from writing down the value of its YNAP investment.
From its continuing operations, which removed the impact of the write-down and the contribution from YNAP, Richemont increased its profit by 40% to 2.1 billion euros.
Sales increased by 24% to 9.67 billion euros, helped by a recovery in the Asia Pacific region and double-digit percentage sales growth in all other regions as previously locked-down customers returned to its luxury boutiques.
Still, Chairman Johann Rupert remained cautious about the future developments such as the slowing global economy.
“It is highly uncertain how the political, economic and social landscapes will evolve in Europe and in our other key markets,” he said.
“We only know that we will likely face volatile times ahead as central banks seek to rein in inflation while governments try to manage severe cost of living pressures.”
($1 = 0.9785 euros)
(Reporting by John Revill, Editing by Miranda Murray)
