(CS) European Luxury : Assessing the impact of a renminbi devaluation

We assess the impact of a renminbi devaluation. Given the FX mismatch between sales and costs, we estimate that a 10% renminbi devaluation would lead to an immediate 4% cut to earnings on avg. While exposure to the Chinese clientele remains high at c.30% of global luxury sales but their contribution to organic growth has fallen since the boom years of 2010-12 from >2/3 to c.1/3 in 2015. A renminbi devaluation would be unhelpful for Chinese demand overall but we find historically consumer sentiment and stock exchange moves in China have not influenced luxury goods demand in a meaningful way. The most sensitive stocks to the renminbi depreciation are Swatch Group (O/P) and Ferragamo (O/P) while Hugo Boss (O/P) seems to be more protected.