Rupert to take year off

By: SILKE KOLTROWITZ

ZURICH – Richemont’s chairman and founder will take a year off from September, leaving the world’s number two luxury group in the hands of recently-named joint chief executives at a time of faltering growth in the industry’s key market of China.

The 62-year-old South African billionaire Johann Rupert, who transformed his father’s sprawling business interests into a world force in watches and jewellery, said yesterday he had about 50 books he wanted to read and might travel to Antarctica.
“I just want to be the master of my time for some time,” Rupert told reporters. “It is ironic someone in the watch business should not be in control of his time.”
The plain-speaking Afrikaner, who holds 50% of Richemont’s voting rights, said he had prepared his absence well by naming veterans on its senior executive committee and placing younger managers at the helm of the group’s biggest brands.
The maker of Cartier watches also reported a pick up sales growth to 12% in April from nine percent in the year ended March, helped by strong demand in Japan ahead of price hikes.
But it added the good April should not necessarily be taken as an indication for the months ahead amid continued uncertainty in the world economy.
Luxury goods companies are particularly worried about China, which has been the engine of growth in the industry but where customers have recently been buying fewer expensive timepieces as gifts for business partners since the government started a broad-based anti-corruption campaign.
“Current trading in April is very encouraging,” Exane BNP Paribas analyst Luca Solca said. The news on Rupert was less positive, “but the company is in good hands,” he added.
Rupert is the latest in a string of top company executives this month to announce plans to step down or take time out, including the chief executives of oil company Royal Dutch Shell, spirits group Diageo grocer Delhaize and industrial group ABB. – Nampa-Reuters

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