Pandora operating profit beats estimates, lifts full-year outlook

Shares in jewellery maker Pandora jumped on Tuesday after the company reported a 34 percent rise in quarterly sales of its charms and bracelets and lifted profit and revenue forecasts for the year.

The shares rose as much as 8.8 percent in Copenhagen to 928 Danish crowns, their highest level since early February and taking them into positive territory for the year so far.

"We have had a very strong start to the year, with all geographic regions, as well as all product categories delivering double digit growth rates," Chief Executive Anders Colding Friis said.

Sales had been boosted by an expansion of the company's global store network, he added.

Pandora has added 405 stores to its global network over the past year and now has over 1,800 standalone shops.

The group increased sales forecast for 2016 to more than 20 billion crowns from its previous target of more than 19 billion crowns. It also lifted the forecast for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin to more than 38 percent from more than 37 percent.

Pandora mostly focuses on less expensive products than others in the luxury segment including Richemont's Cartier, Tiffany and Bulgari.

The Danish jewellery maker has nearly tripled its revenue since its shares was listed in Copenhagen six years ago and now has around 11,000 employees on factories in Thailand.

Sales in the first three months of 2016 rose by 58 percent in Asia-Pacific from a year earlier and by 47 percent in Europe, Middle East and Africa, Pandora said.
Operating profit rose in the first quarter to 1.76 billion Danish crowns ($269 million) from 1.31 billion crowns, above a forecast for 1.63 billion crowns in a Reuters poll of analysts.

"It's a surprisingly strong result, and the lifting of guidance will support the share price today," analyst Michael Friis Jorgensen from brokerage firm Alm. Brand Markets said.

$1 = 6.5359 Danish crowns