Shares of luxury goods giant LVMH tanked sharply on Wednesday after the company reported a worse-than-expected slowdown in revenue growth, signalling a decline in spending on luxury items amid fears of a wider economic slowdown.
Key Takeaways
- LVMH’s share price fell to $727 (€685) in morning trading, down more than 6.6% from the previous day.
- The steep decline follows the company’s third-quarter results showing 9% revenue growth—below analyst predictions of 10%—a drop from 17% in the previous quarter.
- LVMH’s wines and spirits business was the worst hit—seeing a 14% decline in revenue compared to the same period last year—which the company blamed on the “post-Covid normalization of demand” and the “economic environment” in the U.S. hurting cognac sales in particular.
- Fashion and leather goods, the company’s biggest division, saw year-over-year growth of 9% in the third quarter—down sharply from a growth of 20% in the first half of the year.
Forbes Valuation
According to our estimates, LVMH Chairman And CEO Bernard Arnault is the second richest person in the world after Elon Musk. His estimated net worth was $179.1 billion—down $6.4 billion in the past 24 hours. Despite this Arnault remains comfortably ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s fortune of $152.3 billion—who is third on Forbes’ Real Time Billionaires List.
