Swiss luxury group Richemont boosted by Asia recovery

ZURICH, July 17 (Reuters): Luxury group Richemont reported a 14 per cent increase in first-quarter sales on Monday, boosted by a strong rebound in Asia and demand for its high-end jewellery.
But the owner of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery also pointed to a downturn in the Americas, which weighed on its shares.
The shares, which have gained 53 per cent in the last year, were down 3.1 per cent in pre market activity in Zurich.
Richemont posted a 19 per cent rise in organic sales which exclude the impact of currency movements while analysts expected 20 per cent, Bernstein analyst Luca Solca noted.
"We would expect a muted reaction from the market to today's announcement," he said.
Richemont's Asia-Pacific business boomed, helped by the lifting of COVID-related restrictions and reopening of borders, pushing the company's sales 32 per cent higher.
But the Americas, where concerns have risen in recent months about a slowdown in luxury demand in the United States, saw sales fall 4 per cent, said the company, which also owns several high-end watch brands.
Visitors look at models on the IWC booth during the Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva
"Negative growth in the Americas is likely to temper some of the market expectations," said Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy.
Overall, Richemont said its sales increased by 14 per cent to 5.322 billion euros ($5.97 billion) in the three months to the end of June.
That was short of the 5.43 billion euros expected by analysts at Barclays and 5.54 billion expected by analysts at Bank Vontobel. Richemont does not report first quarter profit.
The sales increase was led by jewellery, where revenue rose by 19 per cent to 3.60 billion euros.