LVMH Books Higher 1st Half Revenue, Profit as Fashion Sales Surge

By Joshua Kirby

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE's earnings rose sharply in the first half as sales jumped by more than half on the year, driven by the core soft-luxury division.

The French luxury-goods giant said Monday that it made an operating profit of 7.63 billion euros ($8.98 billion) in the six months to end-June, nearly fives times as much as the previous-year period, and some 44% higher than in the same period of 2019. Sales increased to EUR28.67 billion from EUREUR18.39 billion previously.

Analysts had forecast a first-half operating profit of EUR6.83 billion on sales of EUR28.36 billion.

Net profit came to EUR5.29 billion, more than tenfold that of 2020's first half.

Sales at the core fashion and leather-goods division, which houses brands Dior and Louis Vuitton, saw the sharpest on-year increase of 74% to EUR13.86 billion. All other divisions also saw large on-year rises, though the perfumes and cosmetics and selective retailing segments remained below the pre-pandemic period in terms of revenue.

Write to Joshua Kirby at [e-mail]; @joshualeokirby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 26, 2021 12:18 ET (16:18 GMT)

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