LVMH and Kering Point to a Luxury Recovery as Solvay Battles Middle East Disruption

Overview

• LVMH reported stable first‑half results and a Q2 acceleration, with €5.7 billion net profit and €38.6 billion in sales, and organic revenue up 3% in the quarter, which the group disclosed on Monday.
• Kering recorded a return to quarter‑on‑quarter growth with Q2 sales of about €3.65 billion and a 2% comparable increase, results the company says reflect early progress from CEO Luca de Meo’s turnaround measures.
• Currency moves trimmed reported sales at LVMH by roughly 5 percentage points and a regional split shows Asia ex‑Japan and the United States as the main growth engines while Europe remains flat.
• Solvay said the Middle East conflict hurt its Q2 operations, forced a temporary stoppage of a Peroxides plant since mid‑March, confirmed full‑year targets and approved €15–20 million to expand rare‑earth separation capacity at La Rochelle.
• The combined picture suggests a fragile recovery driven by product renewals and selective retail openings with risks from FX and geopolitical shocks that could reshape supply chains and industrial investment into rare‑earth processing.