Richemont shares climb 6% on report full-year gross sales, new CEO

Shares of Swiss luxury group Richemont climbed as much as 6.3% Friday after the company reported record full-year sales, even as Asia-Pacific spending waned.

The Cartier owner said group sales rose 3% at actual exchange rates to an all-time high of 20.6 billion euros ($22.38 billion) in the financial year ending in March, despite a weakening outlook for luxury brands.

Shares dipped slightly after market open to trade up 5.6% by 9:00 a.m. London time.

Fiscal fourth-quarter sales fell 1% to 4.8 billion euros at actual rates, driven by a slowdown in Asia-Pacific.

“We experienced a softening of sales in the fourth quarter in Asia Pacific against challenging comparatives, which was more than offset by higher growth in all the other regions. As we predicted, a sustainable rebound in Chinese demand would take some time,” chairman Johann Rupert said in a statement.

In a separate statement, the company announced Nicolas Bos, CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, as its new group CEO, effective June 1.