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Richemont has been an excellent performer on the JSE of late. In the last year it has gone from R100 a share to R170. When you look at the performance of their competitors like Louis Vuitton, you can see why. Luxury goods companies are enjoying a bumper year.

Yesterday Richemont almost broke R160 a share for the first time. It reached a high of R159.77. The share price has been very frustrating since 2013, bouncing between R100 and R120, so it is great to see it finally break out of that range. One of the main reasons for the company being range bound was that political gift giving was discouraged by officials in China, so gold watch sales took a knock. Once that had normalised, then the globe started to shift towards digital watches and away from traditional watches.

On Friday, Richemont and Alibaba announced an exciting joint venture to buy a stake in an online luxury retailer called Farfetch. The partnership will require both Richemont and Alibaba to put in $550m each for a combined 25% stake in Farfetch and to take on some convertible bonds.

Luxury goods company Richemont, reported its full-year numbers with a surprise dividend cut and a 19% drop in revenues. The Rupert run business also sold about EUR2 billion worth of bonds, in order to bulk up its balance sheet as a hedge against the uncertain future we find ourselves in at the moment.

This morning Richemont released a trading update for the quarter ending 31 December 2019. Total sales increased 6% for the period. Europe grew by a solid 10% while Asia lagged a little, growing by 3%. That was because of a large contraction in Hong Kong. Americas grew 9%, Japan contracted 1% and the Middle East and Africa grew by 6%. Online retail grew by 8% and now represents 18% of group sales.

On Friday morning before the market opened Richemont released their six months numbers. Unfortunately they missed market expectations resulting in the stock dropping 5.7%. One of the main reasons for the miss is due to the protests currently going on in Hong Kong. With all the unrest that has been around since June, tourism numbers have plummeted, meaning the number of customers going through their stores has also dropped.

Richemont may be very proud of the age of their brands but they have certainly stuck with the times when it comes to selling their goods. According to Tech Central the Richemont Alibaba joint venture went live yesterday.

If you have been following our daily message for a while you would know that Richemont owns a large online luxury retailer called Yoox Net-a-Porter. Richemont consolidated the two businesses to achieve scale and now own more than 95% of the combined entity.

On Friday morning Richemont released their full year numbers. It was a big year for the group because management moved the company into online retail in a big way. They bought the shares that they didn't own in Yoox Net-A-Porter, and they bought Watchfinder, a leading omni-channel platform for premium pre-owned timepieces.

Richemont, the second largest luxury goods company in the world released its third-quarter trading update on Friday. The maker of Cartier had two very prominent strategies going into 2018. First, increase sales channels by pushing online/e-commerce, which was only 1% of the groups' total sales. Second, invest more in Chinese operations.

Late last week Richemont released interim 6-month results for the period ending 30 September. The below table indicates the change in numbers over the comparable periods.

Richemont just reported its results for the financial year ended 31 March 2018. It managed sales of EUR 10 979 million (up by 3% at actual exchange rates) and profit for the year of EUR 1 221 million (up 1%). Double digit sales growth was maintained in mainland China, Hong Kong, Korea and Macau.

On Friday morning Richemont announced its unaudited consolidated results for the six month period ended 30 September 2017, showing what we mostly already knew thanks to numbers from their competitors. After having a tough couple of years, mostly due to the corruption crack down in China, they are back on the growth path. This was highlighted by a resurgent Hong Kong.

Richemont, the luxury goods producer, released results for their full year last Friday. Sales had fallen as a result of a tricky operating environment. Asia Pacific was flat, it still constitutes 37 percent of the overall business by sales, Europe is 29 percent, having fallen recently, much of that due to the recovery of the Americas (which is now 17 percent of all sales). There were pockets of strength, Mainland China, Korea and the UK, as well as the US.

Richemont produced a 3rd quarter trading update for the period to end 31 December yesterday, just before the market opened. Jewellery sales across their platforms were stronger. Asia Pacific showing good growth, thanks mostly to South Korea and Mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong still a little in the dumpsters, the release suggests continued declines. I suspect a slight change in shopping patterns, mainland customers will become bigger consumers, even with the higher duties. In China it is called "consumption tax", see Import-Export Taxes and Duties in China. As far as my "research" on Hong Kong, the rate is zero for imported jewellery, it is by extension far cheaper to buy luxury items in Hong Kong than on the mainland.