Luxury and cosmetics group Puig, owner of the Paco Rabanne and Jean-Paul Gaultier brands, saw its shares fall sharply on Friday morning on the Madrid stock exchange due to results deemed disappointing, despite dynamic sales. The Spanish company, which launched on the stock market at the beginning of May, posted an attributed net profit of 154 million euros for the entire first half of the year, 26% less than during the same period in 2023 (209 million).
Profits fell despite a 9.6% increase in turnover, to 2.1 billion euros, driven by dynamic sales, particularly in the fashion and perfume sector (+10.7%). These results, the first since the company’s IPO, were received coldly by the markets in Madrid, where Puig shares were down nearly 10% at 08:15 GMT.
The Catalan group explains the drop in its net profit by the costs incurred by its IPO, estimated at 119.7 million euros, due in particular to the “extraordinary bonuses paid to employees”. He nevertheless says he is optimistic for the whole of 2024, given the good performance of his “prestige brands”particularly in Europe and North America, and the integration of the Dr Barbara Strum brand, acquired at the start of the year.
Broken Promises
First half sales demonstrate “the success of our strategic choices” and allow to “confirm the medium-term forecasts communicated during our IPO in May of this year”he adds.
The Catalan beauty house, founded in 1914 in Barcelona by entrepreneur Antonio Puig Castellò, went public on May 3, with the aim of competing with big names in the sector such as Hermès, Kering and LVMH. Its CEO had assured at the time that this introduction would allow it to impose a «discipline» market and avoid the “difficulties” that family businesses face when passing the baton between generations.
The group, which controls the brands Paco Rabanne, Nina Ricci, Charlotte Tilbury, Carolina Herrera and Jean-Paul Gaultier, remains 71.7% owned by the Puig family, which also retains a large majority of voting rights (92.5%).
