Luxury goods boom is lifting Richemont

Shoppers snapping up luxury looks while sitting on the sofa each evening have helped online fashion site Net-a-Porter match the sales growth of its stablemates like Cartier and Montblanc at designer brands giant Richemont.

Despite recession in many of its markets, Richemont saw the global appetite for upmarket clothes, jewellery and watches show no signs of waning with a forecast-beating 43 per cent rise in net profits.

Richemont, the world's second-largest luxury goods group behind Paris-based LVMH, is "cautiously optimistic" despite the unstable economic environment.

Growth is so buoyant its South African owners, the Rupert family, announced a share buyback.

Chairman and chief executive Johann Rupert will buy back up to 10 million of its A shares through the market over the next two years.

Profit for the year to the end of March hit €1.54bn (£1.23bn).