周大福业绩大幅下滑

Chow Tai Fookreported a sharp fall in interim net profit, painting a grim picture of Chinese consumer sentiment and raising concerns that the world’s largest jewellery retailer by market value had entered slower growth, writes Enid Tsui in Hong Kong.

周大福(Chow Tai Fook)报告中期净利润出现大幅下滑。这反映出中国消费者信心减弱，也让人担心周大福是否已进入缓慢增长期。按市值衡量，周大福是全球最大的珠宝零售商。

The Hong Kong-based company said yesterday that lack of consumer confidence and an estimated HK$600m accounting loss from its gold hedging contracts resulted in a 32.9 per cent decline in net profit to HK$1.9bn ($245m) for the six months to September 30.

总部位于香港的周大福昨日表示，由于消费者信心缺失，加上其黄金对冲合约出现大约6亿港元的财务亏损，在截至2012年9月底止的6个月内，公司净利润下降32.9%，至19亿港元（合2.45亿美元）。

Same-store sales fell 1.7 per cent in the first six months, the company said.

周大福表示，期内同店销售额降低了1.7%。

The growth in Chinese consumer spending, which has lifted the fortunes of big international?brands in recent years, had already showed signs of slowing this year.

过去几年中，中国消费者支出快速增长，提高了各大国际珠宝品牌的利润水平。但今年以来，中国消费者支出已呈现增长减缓迹象。

This summer Chow Tai Fook shares fell sharply after it reported a 4 per cent rise in same-store sales for the first quarter. At the time of its HK$15.8bn listing last December, sales were growing at a rate of more than 50 per cent, while first-half same-store sales last year were up 61.9 per cent.

今夏，周大福公告第一季度同店销售额增长4%，公司股价随即大幅下挫。去年12月该公司上市融资158亿港元时，销售额增长率超过50%，而去年上半年同店销售额增长率更是达到61.9%。

Henry Cheng, chairman, said the slowdown reflected the extremely high base last year. Chinese demand was also affected by fears about the global economy and the uncertainties ahead of the country’s leadership change. Same-store sales had resumed growth in November, he said.

周大福董事局主席郑家纯(Henry Cheng)表示，销售额增长放缓反映去年同期的基数极高。对全球经济形势的担忧，以及中国最高领导层换届之前的不确定性，也影响了中国消费者需求。郑家纯表示，进入11月，同店销售额又开始有所回升。