On May 7, Van Cleef & Arpels opened its first boutique in Florence. In the prestigious Via dè Tornabuoni, customers can discover the collections of the Maison, which was founded in 1906, over a total area of 260 m2 on two floors. Special rooms are available for personal consultations. It is not known how business in the Tuscan capital is going so far. What is certain is that the jewelry division has helped the luxury goods group Richemont make a solid start to the 2026 fiscal period (as at 31.03.). The segment, which includes Van Cleef & Arpels, Buccellati, Cartier and Vhernier, increased sales by 11% at constant exchange rates in the first quarter. This is the third consecutive quarter of double-digit percentage growth in the jewelry segment. Meanwhile, sales in the watch segment fell by 7% in the past quarter. Overall, Richemont recorded growth of 6% at constant exchange rates to EUR 5.4 billion for the period from April to June 2025. This means that business developed in line with analysts' expectations.
There are clear regional differences. In North-America, Europe and the Middle East & Africa sales region - which together account for around 57% of Group sales - Richemont achieved double-digit percentage growth. Meanwhile, sales in the Asia-Pacific region stagnated. Sequentially, the situation in China, Hong Kong and the vacation island of Macau has improved. However, combined sales here fell by 7%. Richemont was able to compensate for this dip with a strong performance in the rest of Asia-Pacific, particularly in Australia and South Korea. Sales in Japan slumped by 15% in the first three months of the 2026 financial year. The strong yen had a negative impact here, it spoiled the desire of affluent tourists to go luxury shopping. In the previous year, Richemont had still benefited from the weakness of the Japanese currency.
As usual, the industry giant does not present any earnings figures for the three-month period. Just this much: as at June 30, Richemont had a net cash position of EUR 7.4 billion. The management around CEO Nicolas Bos did not provide an outlook for the year as a whole. Nevertheless, the interim report shows that the Group is coping relatively well with a difficult environment characterized by trade disputes and currency fluctuations. The company's own pricing policy is likely to pay off. In May, Chairman of the Board of Directors Johann Rupert indicated that Richemont had taken a more cautious approach to price increases than its competitors. Although the stock market responded to the interim report with price markdowns, the company is doing relatively well here too. Over a 12-month period, Richemont has outperformed the sector giant LVMH by almost 40 percentage points. Incidentally, the French group will present its half-year figures on Thursday, July 24.
The Richemont share also cuts a fine figure as the underlying for a new soft callable barrier reverse convertible. Irrespective of the further performance of the SMI share, investors receive a quarterly coupon payment of 8.4% p.a. on the CHF-denominated issue. The barrier is 64% of the initial level. As long as Richemont does not fall to or below this level during the 18-month term, the issuer will repay the nominal value in full. Otherwise the partial protection expires. In order for the maximum return to be maintained, Richemont would have to be at or above the strike again after a breach of the barrier at the final fixing. Due to the soft callable function, early termination of this BRC is possible. If Leonteq exercises this right on one of the predefined dates, investors would receive a pro rata coupon in addition to the nominal value within a few days.
Traders beware: Richemont is part of Leonteq's large and constantly growing pool of underlying assets for leverage products. The Zurich-based fintech trades almost 40 variants on the luxury goods company. In addition to mini-futures (long/short), warrants with knock-out (call/put) are also available. This allows investors to bet on both rising and falling Richemont prices.
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