LVMH Net Misses Estimates on Spirit, Champagne Slump

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the world’s largest luxury-goods maker, reported earnings unexpectedly stagnated after handbag sales failed to offset slumping demand for Hennessey cognac and Moet champagne.

Net income for 2008 was 2.03 billion euros ($2.6 billion), the Paris-based company said today, unchanged from a year earlier. That missed the 2.09 billion-euro median estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Profit had risen 7 percent in the first half and jumped 12 percent in the second half of 2007.

Read the rest here.