Cartier owners profit sinks as China sales slump [Video]

Cartier owner Richemont posted Friday a hefty drop in net profit for the first half of the year as watch sales sank in China, where weak consumer spending has hit the luxury sector.

Richemont said its profit after tax reached 457 million euros ($492 million), down from 1.5 billion euros in the same six-month period last year as it booked a 1.2-billion-euro write-down from the sale of its Yoox-Net-A-Porter online fashion business.

Its net profit for continuing operations was 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in the six-month period ending in September, 20 percent lower than in 2023 and less than expected by analysts polled by Swiss news agency AWP.

Global sales fell one percent to 10.1 billion euros.

Sales from the Asia-Pacific region were down by almost a fifth while all other regions in the world posted “solid growth”, Richemont said in a results statement.

Citing “reduced consumer spending” in China, Richemont said growth in other Asian countries was …