[ET Net News Agency, 6 May 2020] Nomura lowered its target price for L'Occitane (00973)
to HK$12.7 from HK$22.1 and downgraded its rating to "neutral" from "buy".
The research house said L'Occitane's 4Q FY2020 top-line beat investors' expectations.
The outperformance was mainly driven by Elemis, with growth remaining robust at 20%+ in
4Q FY2020, aided by the strong growth of e-commerce and TV channels.
The company estimated the sales loss from COVID-19 at EUR56mn or 17% of total sales in
4Q.
Despite L'Occitane's relative outperformance versus global peers, Nomura believes the
recovery path in western countries could be lengthy vs other China-centric peers. Nomura
lowered its FY2020-22 earnings forecasts by 10-51% to reflect the COVID-19 impact. (KL)