Shares of Gucci-owner Kering hit seven-year low after weak forecast, revenue drop on low China sales

Shares in Gucci-owner Kering fell on Thursday, after the luxury group announced a sharp decline in revenue in the first half of the year and issued a weak forecast for the remaining six months of the year.

Kering shares dropped as much as 9% as markets opened, trading around levels last seen in August 2017. It pared back some losses, with stock down 6.74% at 12:04 p.m. London time.

The luxury group late on Wednesday announced that its revenue had fallen 11% in the first half of 2024, compared to the same time period a year earlier. The decline was “against the backdrop of a slowing market in most regions except Japan,” the company said in a statement.

“There was a marked deceleration in China, while trends did not improve greatly in North America and Europe,” Kering added.

Stripping out foreign exchange effects, group revenue in Japan jumped 22% in the first half of the year, while the print for the broader Asian figure excluding Japan declined by 20%.

The luxury firm also said it was expecting recurring operating profit to tumble by as much as 30% year-on-year in the second half of 2024, citing “uncertainties weighing on the evolution of demand from luxury consumers.”

Recurring operating profit fell 42% in the first six months of the year, Kering noted, adding that this was in line with guidance issued when the group reported its figures for the first quarter earlier this year.

Kering owns several luxury companies including Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta. Gucci posted the worst first-half performance of these brands, with revenue shedding 18% on a comparable basis.

“At the moment we don’t see tangible signs that Gucci is reviving,” Luca Solca, senior luxury analyst at Bernstein, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday. Consumer reaction to new handbag lines that are set to be introduced in the second half of the year would test the brand’s performance, he added.

“If the reaction is positive then this could potentially be as bad as it gets. If it’s not, then I guess that Kering will have to embrace emergency measures to try and protect the bottom line,” Solca said.

Gucci has been struggling in recent quarters after booming in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, amid inflationary pressure on consumer spending and the emergence of the “quiet luxury” trend.

Kering is the latest in a series of luxury brands to log declines, with the world’s largest luxury group LVMH reporting lower-than-expected sales earlier this week.

Solca said Kering previously had a successful strategy that incorporated streetwear and appealed to aspirational consumers. But streetwear is now not as popular, and there has been a slowdown among the middle class and aspirational consumers — a “double whammy” for the brand, he said.