Research archive for LRLCY

Results from L'Oreal yesterday, for their third quarter to end September, the biggest company of their kind on the planet. According to their annual report from 2013, in sales from 2013, this is the spread: L'Oreal: 28.88 billion Dollars, Unilever: 20.70 billion Dollars, Procter & Gamble: 20.08 billion Dollars, Estee Lauder: 9.98 billion and in fifth place, Shiseido: 8.38 billion Dollars. Earlier this year Shiseido sold two brands, Carita as well as Decleor (excuse me for leaving off accents here) to L'Oreal. Smaller in the bigger picture, sizeable nonetheless.

Yesterday evening we received first half results from L'Oreal. Overall like for like sales grew by 3.8% but due to currency fluctuations sales reported in Euros were down 1.7%. They have been hit by a double edged sword with the Euro strengthening amongst developed market currencies but at the same time many developing market currencies have weakened. For a company reporting in Euros this is of course not a good situation and explains why the share price has been flat for the better part of a year.

Last week we had first quarter sales numbers from L'Oreal. Here were the highlights. Like for like sales were up 3.5% whilst reported figures were down 2.2% because of big currency swings. As you can imagine, the Euro has strengthened considerably and this has a negative impact on a business who operates internationally but reports in Euros. Divisionally and geographically this table tells the full story.

Last year November Sasha wrote this piece titled L'Oreal earnings ok, the Nestle stake is a big hurdle. It is a really interesting article and funnily enough I still remember reading it word for word in Santiago Chile while I was still travelling. I was at a Sushi restaurant with free wifi and read it while waiting for the food to arrive.

L'Oreal released their results last week. Interesting business, essentially in the control of the daughter of the founder, and because we live much longer nowadays than before, she basically was there with her dad at the beginning. Liliane Bettencourt, the only child of the founder of L'Oreal, Eugene Schueller, has just celebrated her 91st birthday. According to her Wikipedia entry she started working for her dad when she was 15. The business only went public in 1963 after her father had died (1957) and had passed on the family fortune. So how long did she work for? Well, effectively until the day before Valentines day last year, that is when she officially resigned as a director of the business. 74 years long at the business founded as Aureale (a hair dye product) and then in 1919 he (Eugene Schueller) registered Société Française de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux (Safe Hair Dye Company of France). Phew, L'Oreal does roll off the tongue a little easier than that longer name.

LOreal released their half year results this morning. This business carries some of the best known beauty products globally, Lancome, Cacharel, Vichy, Maybelline, Redken, Kerastase and of course LOreal itself. Please forgive me for having left off all of the accents there, the "interwebs" does not take kindly to some of the formatting. Through history humans have used cosmetic products to enhance their beauty. I keep telling my wife she needs none, but I get it! Even after a decade plus of marriage, I get that I have to be patient when going somewhere, you cant just leave in a hurry. Everything from foundations through eyeliners to nail polish, beauty is a serious business. For the consumers and the producers.

On Tuesday evening we received a sales update from one of our favourite companies which fortunately for us has an ADR listing in New York. Its primary listing is in France and its two biggest shareholders are Nestle (29.3%) and the Bettencourt family (30.7%). Any guesses? I'm talking about L'Oreal.

Yesterday we had full year results from one of our newly recommended stocks in New York which certainly pleased the market. L'Oreal managed to grow sales 10.4% for the year which came in at 22.46 billion Euros. On a like for like basis (excluding acquisitions etc) this grew 5.5% which beat the sectors growth of 4%. This obviously means that they managed to gain some market share. Net earnings per share grew 15% to 4.9 Euros while the dividend was increased by 15% and another share buyback worth 500 million Euros was announced.

Here at Vestact we are forever looking for new opportunities, it's what makes this industry so exciting and by managing money in New York the avenues are endless. Over the last month or so I have been looking at a company which fits a massive growth theme around the world. The company is huge with 20.3billion Euro's in sales last year, this is certainly no secret but I think it is a great addition to our New York portfolios.