US luggage maker Samsonite on Tuesday posted record first-half sales, boosted by strong global travel demand as well as growth in Asia and North America. The firm said net profit for the six months to June 30 leapt 400 percent to $82.3 million compared with the previous first half, when it booked almost $60 million in one-off costs including the financing of its Hong Kong float.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation climbed 15.8 percent to $136.5 million, on the back of a 14-percent rise in revenue to $846.7 million. Net sales rose 13.8 percent to a record $846.7 million, boosted by 21.3 percent growth in Asia to $324.6 million and 27.7 percent growth in North America to $238.5 million.
Chairman and chief executive Timothy Parker said the luggage maker was on track to beat last year's net sales of $1.57 billion. But he said it would not match the unusually high 29 percent net sales growth recorded last year, when the market was picking up from the global credit crisis.
"We will be around $1.75 billion this year. If you're in global consumer markets today, to do somewhere around 15 percent growth is actually a pretty good outcome," he told AFP. Net sales in Europe fell two percent to $221.2 million as the ongoing eurozone crisis affected sentiment.
Investors reacted negatively to the results, selling the stock down 3.71 percent at HK$13.48 at noon. The broader Hang Seng Index was 0.16 percent lower. Samsonite raised more than $225 million in an initial public offering in Hong Kong in June last year, pricing its shares at HK$14.50.