亞洲渴望奢侈手錶皮革製品 : 在病毒大流行中推動了LVMH業績

Recently Yahoo news on-line reported the following:

Asia's hunger for luxury watches, leather goods boosted LVMH results amid pandemic

Saleha Riaz

Yahoo Finance UK Wed., January 27, 2021, 1:48 a.m.

The coronavirus pandemic hit LVMH’s (MC.PA) bottom line in 2020, with both its revenue and profit down, but it said it showed “good resilience” in part thanks to strong growth in Asia towards the second half of the year.

Shares ticked up 1.5% in Paris on Wednesday morning.

LVMH, which owns brands including Bvlgari, Louis Vuitton and Dior, said its watches and jewellery unit saw its organic revenue decline by 23% in 2020, but the situation improved in Q4, when the decline was 2%.

“Bvlgari was very responsive and quickly capitalised on the strong recovery in China,” the company said.

Its fashion and leather goods business group recorded a decrease in organic revenue of “only 3% in an environment marked by the closure of stores over a period of several months.”

“The second half saw a noteworthy rebound in activity, with double-digit organic revenue growth in both quarters. China recorded a strong recovery in revenue beginning in April and the United States in July,” the firm said.

Its perfumes and cosmetics brands benefited from growth of skincare and online sales, particularly in Asia.

“As far as geographical performance goes, it’s still very much a game of two halves, with a strong recovery in Asia but sales in Europe are still performing under par given the resurgence of the virus,” noted Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“In China sales ticked up on watch and jewelry sales in particular, as customers once again began ringing the bell of luxury stores and adding their name to waiting lists of coveted goods,” she added.

Overall, the company recorded revenue of €44.7bn (£39.4bn, $54bn) in 2020, down 17%. Profit from recurring operations was €8.3bn in 2020, which was a decline of “only” 28% as per the company, “due to a return to growth in the second half,” which was up 7%.

“LVMH showed good resilience in 2020 in an economic environment severely disrupted by the serious health crisis that led to the suspension of international travel and the closure of the group’s stores and manufacturing sites in most countries over a period of several months,” it said.

But it noted that it saw a significant improvement in trends in all its activities compared to the first nine months of 2020.

Bernard Arnault, LVMH CEO, said that “in a context that remains uncertain, even with the hope of vaccination giving us a glimpse of an end to the pandemic, we are confident that LVMH is in an excellent position to build upon the recovery for which the world wishes in 2021 and to further strengthen our lead in the global luxury market.”

LVMH said it enters 2021 with “cautious confidence” and believes it “is well-equipped to build upon the hoped-for recovery in 2021 and regain growth momentum for all its businesses.”

“Steering the big LVMH ship through the treacherous waters of 2020 has been far from plain sailing for management, but these results show that the group has weathered the storm admirably,” said Streeter.

“Like all pandemic survivors, the adaption to the shift to online shopping has been crucial for LVMH and here fashion and leather goods put in a ship shape performance,” she added.

Translation

冠狀病毒大流行令LVMH（MC.PA）在2020年碰觸着它的底線，收入和利潤均下降。但它已示出“良好的反彈力”，這在一定程度上得益於到下半年亞洲的強勁增長。

週三上午，在巴黎的股市上漲了1.5％。

擁有寶格麗（Bvlgari），路易威登（Louis Vuitton）和迪奧（Dior）等品牌的路易威登（LVMH）表示，其手錶和珠寶業務的有機收入在2020年下降了23％，但情況在第四季度有所改善，下降是2％。

公司表示：“寶格麗反應迅速，並迅速抓住了中國的強勁復甦機會。”

其時尚和皮革製品業務部門的有機收入減少了:“在充满關閉商店現象的營商環境中的幾個月內，僅減少了3％”。

公司表示,“下半年業務活動顯著反彈，兩個季度有機收入均實現兩位數增長。中國的收入在4月開始強勁復甦，美國則在7月開始。”

其香水和化妝品品牌受益於護膚品和在線銷售的增長，尤其是在亞洲。

Hargreaves Lansdown高級投資和市場分析師Susannah Streeter指出, “就地域表現而言，它仍然是兩半的遊戲，亞洲有強勁復甦，但歐洲鑑於該病毒的復活，銷售表現仍不如預期。”

Susannah Streeter補充說： “尤其是在中國，鐘錶和珠寶的銷量增加了，因為顧客再次開始按奢侈品商店的門鐘，並將他們的名字加到等待非常期望和羡慕商品的名單中” 。

總體而言，該公司2020年的收入為447億歐元（394億英鎊，540億美元），下降17％。到2020年，來自經常性運營的利潤為83億歐元， “由於下半年恢復增長了7％” ，該公司的利潤 “僅” 下降了28％。

公司說：“在一個受嚴重健康危機而被嚴重破壞了經濟環境的情況下，LVMH在2020年表現出了良好的反彈能力，健康危機導致國際旅行暫停，並且該集團在大多數國家的商店和生產基地關閉了幾個月”。

但公司指出，與2020年的前9個月相比，其所有活動的趨勢都有顯著改善。

LVMH首席執行官Bernard Arnault表示： “即使接種疫苗能使我們有看到這場大流行终止的希望，在仍然有不確定情的情況下, 我們有信心LVMH可以在復甦的基礎上繼續發展, 這亦是2021年全世界的願望，並進一步鞏固我們在全球奢侈品市場中的領先地位。”

LVMH表示，它以 “謹慎的信心” 進入2021年，並認為 “它有充分的能力在2021年, 在希望複甦的基礎上努力不懈，恢復其所有業務的增長動力。”

Streeter說, “在2020年險惡的水域中駕駛大型LVMH船是遠非一般平凡的航行管理，但現有結果表明，該集團已令人欽佩度地渡過了風暴，” 。

她補充說：“就像所有病毒大流行的倖存者一樣，去適應在線上購物的轉變對LVMH至關重要。在這裡, 時裝和皮革製品呈現出船型表現。”

              So, even during the pandemic, some commercial sectors are doing business as usual, and some are even better than before. No wonder the global container shipping business is having a field day recently.

Note:

a. “Organic growth” used in the context of business management refers to the growth in a company's sales that did not occur due to the acquisition of another company.