Hermes International : Leading French luxury stocks fall after latest U.S. tariff threats
December 03, 2019 at 11:19 am EST
Share
Shares in leading French luxury companies fell on Tuesday after the United States issued a new set of tariff threats on French products.
On Monday, the U.S. government said it may slap punitive duties of up to 100% on $2.4 billion of imports from France of champagne, handbags, cheese and other products, after concluding that France's new digital services tax would harm U.S. tech companies.
Shares in French luxury handbag maker Hermes fell by around 2%, while luxury goods companies LVMH and Kering fell 1.5% and 1.2% respectively.
Glass bottle maker Verallia, which makes glass containers to brands such as Dom Perignon champagne, fell 2.5%.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Alison Williams)
Hermès International specializes in the design, manufacturing, and marketing of luxury products. Net sales break down by family of products as follows:
- leather and saddlery goods (41.3%): purses, luggage, small leather goods, planners, writing items, saddles, bridles, riding objects and clothing, etc.;
- clothes, shoes, and accessories (28.9%);
- silk and textile products (6.9%);
- clock and watchmaking articles (4.6%);
- perfumes and beauty products (3.7%);
- other (14.6%): mainly jewelry and home decoration products.
At the end of 2023, the group had a network of 294 stores worldwide.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: France (9.5%), Europe (13.6%), Japan (9.4%), Asia/Pacific (46.7%), Americas (18.6%) and other (2.2%).