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This story was updated July 23 at 1:17 p.m. ET
PARIS — The market smiled broadly on Interparfums SA’s strong second-quarter sales and the company renewing its fragrance license with Van Cleef & Arpels, both of which were announced Tuesday.
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Interparfums stock closed the day up 19.8 percent to 46.65 euros on the Paris bourse.
The Paris-based fragrance-maker said before the bell that its sales in the three months ended June 30 gained 15.6 percent year-over-year to 209.9 million euros, bolstered by the Montblanc and Coach fragrance businesses, as well as the relaunch of Lacoste fragrances.
Due to this, consolidated company first-half sales reached 422.6 million euros, representing a 6.7 percent rise in reported terms.
The news of Van Cleef’s license renewal for another nine years came as a relief to investors.
Christophe-Raphaël Ganet, an analyst at Oddo BHF, wrote in a note that it “gives a positive signal and above all visibility. It also gives a signal from Richemont and a reassuring message about the Montblanc license.”
In September 2023, Van Cleef & Arpels’ parent company, Compagnie Financière Richemont, said it was forming a Laboratoire de Haute Parfumerie et Beauté to raise the bar on its perfume and beauty business. That caused concern among the financial community that Richemont might take the Van Cleef and Montblanc fragrance businesses, currently are licensed to Interparfums, back in house.
In 2006, Interparfums signed a 12-year fragrance license with Van Cleef. That was then extended for another six years. Since 2023, Interparfums and Van Cleef have been in talks and have agreed to renew the license for nine more years, starting Jan. 1.
More fragrances in its Collection Extraordinaire and a new perfume collection are slated to be launched for the jewelry brand in 2025.
Ganet noted a rather confident tone about Interparfums’ business.
“We are largely on track to meeting our full-year targets after a good performance in the first half, despite a complicated situation in the beauty market in selected countries,” said Philippe Benacin, chairman and chief executive officer of the company, in a statement.
“Sales volumes in the first half of 2024 were not adversely affected by the moderate increases in sales prices applied in early 2022 and 2023, respectively,” continue Philippe Santi, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Interparfums. “In contrast and above all, they made it possible to maintain gross margins at a high level.