The Cointreau distillery in Saint-Barthélemy-d’Anjou
by Diana Mandia and Gaelle Sheehan
Rémy Cointreau soars on the Paris Stock Exchange on Friday, after posting a less significant decline than expected in its turnover in the third quarter thanks to a relative improvement in the United States.
At 11:39 a.m., the cognac producer’s action jumped 14.25% to 100.45 euros, its strongest daily increase since September 2001.
Rémy Cointreau reported a “significant sequential improvement” in the United States thanks to a positive phasing effect on its liqueurs and spirits division.
The group had to lower its outlook in October for its 2023-2024 financial year in the face of difficulties encountered in the United States and China, where the recovery in post-pandemic sales is sluggish.
The United States and China are the group’s two key markets for cognac, sales of which represent the majority of Rémy Cointreau’s revenues.
In the third quarter, turnover stood at 319.9 million euros, down 26.9% in published variation compared to the previous year and 22.7% on an organic basis. Analysts expected 318.6 million euros, according to a consensus established by the company.
For the entire financial year, Rémy Cointreau forecasts a decline in its annual turnover at the bottom of the range of 15% to 20% given in October, or close to 20% in organic data.
The publication of Rémy Cointreau should bring “slight relief”, notes Edward Mundy, analyst at Jefferies, for whom the action should benefit from the return of investor confidence in the group’s recovery.
Questions nevertheless remain, specifies the analyst, in particular on “the duration of destocking in China, the timetable for normalization of shipments to the United States and the investigation into dumping margins in China”.
Earlier this month, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced the launch of an anti-competition investigation into wine spirits, such as cognac, imported from the European Union.
The financial director of Rémy Cointreau, Luca Marotta, assured Friday that this investigation had so far had no impact on the group’s sales.
(Written by Gaëlle Sheehan with Diana Mandia, edited by Blandine Hénault)