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# Cartier's boom just sent Richemont sparkling on the JSE
- URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/cartiers-boom-just-sent-richemont-sparkling-on-the-jse/
- Published: 2026-07-16T03:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-16T03:14:59.000Z
- Description: Richemont's quarterly sales jumped 20% to €6.3bn on runaway jewellery demand, and its Johannesburg-listed shares leapt 7.5% to the top of the JSE.
- Author: Philip Ziegler
- Tags: Companies, Business Bagel News

Johann Rupert's Richemont has delivered the kind of quarter that turns heads on the JSE. The luxury group behind Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Buccellati and Vhernier reported sales of €6.3 billion for the three months to June, up 20% at constant exchange rates and 17% at actual rates — nearly double what analysts had pencilled in. On Wednesday morning its Johannesburg-listed shares jumped 7.5% to about R3,969, the top performer on the bourse and roughly a fifth higher than a year ago.

## Jewellery does the heavy lifting

The engine room was Richemont's four jewellery houses, where sales rose 24% at constant rates — a seventh straight quarter of double-digit growth. The gains were unusually broad, spread across every region, channel and brand. Wealthy American shoppers led the way, with sales in the Americas accelerating to +27% (€1.67 billion), while Japan surged 36% (€632 million) on a mix of local spending and tourism. Asia Pacific climbed 27% to €2.07 billion, helped by demand in China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan. Even the Middle East and Africa edged back into growth at +3% despite a conflict-driven drop in tourist spending, and Europe added 11% to €1.43 billion on strong demand from local shoppers and North American and Middle Eastern tourists. The steadier specialist-watch division grew 8%.

## Why it matters for SA investors

Richemont is one of the JSE's heavyweight dual-listed names, so a 7.5% pop ripples straight through local portfolios, retirement funds and index trackers. The group is also sitting on a robust €9.1 billion cash pile — including a €0.4 billion inflow from selling its stake in travel retailer Avolta — which gives it room to keep investing in its brands even as raw-material costs stay stubbornly high against what the company itself calls a volatile macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop. Its own-boutique retail channel grew 24% as the group leaned further into selling directly to shoppers rather than through wholesalers.

For now the message from the world's wealthy is unmistakable: they are still buying diamonds, gold and fine watches, and demand is broadening rather than narrowing. That is very good news for the house that Rupert chairs — and for the South African savers who, often without realising it, own a slice of it through their pension and index funds.