Luxottica: net sales for fiscal year 2004 up by 14,1 percent
Luxottica Group yesterday announced consolidated U.S. GAAP results for the three- and twelve-month periods ended December 31, 2004, approved by its Board of Directors. Consolidated results for the quarter and the full year include the consolidation of the Cole National business as of October 4, 2004.
Fiscal Year 2004
- sales: € 3,223.9 million (+14.1%, +21.6% assuming constant exchange rates); retail sales: € 2,315.8 million (+15.7%); retail comparable store sales: +4.2%; wholesale sales: € 1,094.3 million (+10.0%);
- operating income: € 492.8 million (+14.1%); operating margin: 15.3%; retail operating income: € 310.3 million (+15.0%); retail operating margin: 13.4%; wholesale operating income: € 233.1 million (+22.0%); wholesale operating margin: 21.3%;
- net income: € 286.9 million (+7.3%); Net margin: 8.9%;
- earnings per share: € 0.64 (US$ 0.80 per ADS).
Fourth quarter of 2004
- sales: € 941.7 million (+31.0%,+41.7% assuming constant exchange rates ); retail sales: € 730.1 million (+37.3%); retail comparable store sales: +4.1%; wholesale sales: € 258.2 million (+16.7%);
- operating income: € 104.5 million (+5.5%); operating margin: 11.1%; retail operating income: € 74.4 million (+25.0%); retail operating margin: 10.2%; wholesale operating income: €45.4 million (+20.6%); wholesale operating margin: 17.6%;
- net income: €59.8 million (+0.2%); Net margin: 6.3%;- earnings per share: €0.13 (US$0.17 per ADS).
Andrea Guerra, chief executive officer of Luxottica Group, commented: 'This was a particularly strong year for our entire organization, both in retail and wholesale. All our optical and sun retail brands, from LensCrafters to Sunglass Hut to Opsm Group, performed well above industry trends, especially in terms of profitability. In wholesale, our strong fashion and house brands, which include Ray-Ban, the best-selling sun and prescription brand in the world, continued to strengthen their position in key markets worldwide, testifying to the overall strength of our portfolio. Within this context, wholesale sales to third parties rose by 13.2 percent, reflecting an improvement in the trend for the year'.
'During the final quarter of the year, from a retail perspective in North America we focused on the integration of the important Cole National business, the success of which is key for our Group. As of today, all is on track with no surprises'.
Strong free cash flow generation was once again one of the main highlights of Luxottica Group results. In fact, consolidated net outstanding debt as of December 31, 2004, was € 1,711.3 million, compared with € 1,470.4 million as of December 31, 2003, reflecting a net increase of € 240.9 million. This result included a total consideration of approximately € 600 million for the Cole National acquisition as well as € 95.5 million in dividend paid.
For the full year, the tax rate was 35.4 percent, compared with a tax rate of 30.1 percent for fiscal year 2003.
Luxottica Group, based on a € 1 = US$ 1.30 average exchange rate for the full year and an expected tax rate of between 37 percent and 40 percent, forecasts the following results for fiscal year 2005:- sales: from € 4,000 million to € 4,150 million;- earnings per share: from € 0.68 to € 0.70 (earnings per ADS from US$ 0.88 to US$ 0.91);- net debt/Ebitda: from 2.0x to 2.2x.
