Italy’s Ferragamo says can’t forecast impact of coronavirus on results

MILAN (Reuters) – Italian luxury group Salvatore Ferragamo warned it was not possible to forecast the full impact of a spreading coronavirus outbreak on its results after posting a 4% drop in its 2019 core profit on Tuesday.

The Italian brand “has begun to implement several concrete actions to protect the group and mitigate the negative effects on the financial results of the current year”, it said in a statement.

These measures included monitoring costs as well as limiting investments to essential projects, it said.

In 2019, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell by 4.3% to 205 million euros and net profit rose by 1.7% to 92 million euros.

Analysts had expected EBITDA to come in at 206 million euros and net profit of 89 million, according to a Reuters poll.

Ferragamo, which had already announced that sales returned to grow last year, said it would pay a 0.34 euros per share dividend, in line with a year ago.

The luxury industry worldwide is facing a major sales hit due the coronavirus epidemic which first emerged in China, home to more than a third of global luxury shoppers, and has now spread to multiple countries, with key manufacturing hub Italy the worst affected nation in Europe.

(Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi, editing by Silvia Aloisi)