LVMH beats forecast with 1% rise in fourth quarter sales

Adds comments from CEO, analyst, details on regions

PARIS, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Luxury bellwether LVMH LVMH.PA beat expectations on Tuesday with a 1% rise in fourth-quarter sales as demand for designer fashion and handbags picked up over the holiday season, adding to hopes the sector has turned a corner.

The owner of brands including Louis Vuitton handbags and Bulgari jewellery said sales for the three months to end-December reached 23.9 billion euros ($25 billion), as its main fashion and leather division almost matched last year's numbers and sales jumped at its retail unit, which owns cosmetics chain Sephora.

The growth outpaced an expected 1.6% decline, according to a consensus forecast cited by Morgan Stanley, while 2025 has "started rather well", Chief Executive Bernard Arnault told analysts at a briefing.

Finance chief Jean Jacques Guiony told reporters LVMH saw a "slight trend of improvement" in the United States and Europe at the end of 2024, with fashion and leather contributing more to the growth than at the beginning of the year.

LVMH's fashion division, home to its top-earning Louis Vuitton and Dior labels, reported fourth-quarter sales of 11.1 billion euros, a year-on-year decline in organic terms of 1%, but beating a consensus forecast for a 3.3% fall.

The division accounts for almost half of LVMH revenues and three-quarters of its recurring profit.

However, Bernstein analysts said the results failed "to stand up to upgraded expectations on the back of the recent Richemont major beat".

Cartier-owner Richemont reported a robust end-of-year performance, lifted by the U.S. market, where luxury players are looking for growth this year as demand in China remains subdued.

British label Burberry on Friday also beat expectations thanks to strong U.S. holiday spending.

Still, the results from Europe's largest company by market value provide further cheer for investors looking for signs it is pulling out of a slump.

The luxury industry has been wrestling with its slowest sales rate in years, with consultancy Bain & Company estimating they fell globally 2% last year, weighed down by China's sluggish economy.

At LVMH, quarterly sales rose 3% in the U.S. and 4% in Europe, while they declined 10% in the Asia region, less than the 16% drop in the third quarter.

Luxury shares, which have been volatile since the winding down of a post-pandemic boom, have risen sharply since the start of 2025, with Richemont up 25%, Hermes up 15% and LVMH up 19%.

($1 = 0.9580 euros)