LVMH 
LVMH, the world's leading group in the sector, will open the ball on April 16, followed by rivals Kering, Prada and Hermes the following week. Burberry and Richemont will announce their results in May.
A shadow has been cast over the earnings season for luxury goods companies since Kering unexpectedly warned last month that first-quarter sales were set to decline by 10%, compared with the 3% drop anticipated by analysts.
Kering attributed this forecast to the fall in Asian sales of its flagship brand, Gucci.
However, the announcement raised concerns about a potential dip in China for other high-end fashion brands.
There's "a kind of crisis going on, a bit soft. We don't really know where it's going," said Olivier Abtan, consultant at AlixPartners.
"All growth engines" have been at a standstill for a number of quarters, he added, describing the downturn as unprecedented.
According to analysts at HSBC, Chinese tourists to Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore don't seem to be "the spending type" either.
Kering's difficulties in China partly explain why its stock market valuation is lower than that of its rivals. Its price/earnings ratio is currently 16, compared with 24 for LVMH and 51 for Hermes, according to LSEG data.
Following the earnings warning, Kering saw its share price plunge by 15%, while LVMH fell by 7%. Hermes, considered less vulnerable than its rivals due to a more affluent customer base, lost 2%.
Uncertainty hangs over consumers' renewed appetite for high-end fashion products in the short term, even once sales are compared with less impressive figures.
According to Barclays analysts, annual growth in global luxury goods sales is expected to slow to around 5%, compared with nearly 9% last year and double-digit growth in the previous two years.
Against a backdrop of rising living costs, consumers have become more selective in their purchases of high-end products, amplifying the gaps between brands that continue to record solid sales, such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermes, and others such as Burberry, which is in the midst of a major overhaul.
Some brands will benefit from the situation "more than others", commented Caroline Reyl, head of premium brands at Pictet Asset Management. "We've seen this very clearly over the past two years", she added.
Sales growth is also expected to have slowed for high-growth groups such as Prada, whose Miu Miu brand has become a must-have among young Chinese consumers. Prada's January-March retail sales are expected by Jefferies to have risen by 9.3%.
As for LVMH, JPMorgan expects sales to be broadly stable in the first quarter, with 2% growth for its fashion and leather goods division - including the Louis Vuitton and Dior brands - which had posted 9% year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter.
On an organic basis, according to data quoted by UBS, LVMH sales are expected to rise by 3% in the first quarter, and those of Richemont by 1%. The consensus is for sales growth of 13% for Hermes over the period, while Burberry is forecast to be down 10%.
(Mimosa Spencer; Jean Terzian, edited by Zhifan Liu)
by Mimosa Spencer
