Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica's sales rise on solid European growth

(Reuters) -Luxury eyewear maker EssilorLuxottica on Thursday reported a rise in fourth-quarter revenues, citing sound growth amid a challenging environment, but its performance in China declined because of COVID-19 restrictions.

The maker of Oakley and Ray-Ban sunglasses posted a 9.4% rise in revenues to 6.11 billion euros ($6.49 billion) in the final quarter of the year at current exchange rates.

The French-Italian eyewear group said Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) was its best performing region in the quarter due to solid sales growth in France, Italy, Spain, the UK and Scandinavia.

Sales in the region grew 6.2% at constant exchange rates to 2.09 billion euros.

However, the Asia-Pacific region grew by only 3.1% to 731 million euros as performance crumbled during the quarter when China was hit by a severe COVID-19 wave, the group said in a statement.

Luxury peer Hermès on the other hand said last week that wealthy Chinese clients snapped up its products in the fourth quarter, helping it beat sales and margin forecasts.

The likes of French luxury giant and Louis Vuitton-owner LVMH, and Swiss jewellery company Richemont, have also benefited from the resilience of their wealthy customers against the cost-of-living crisis.

EssilorLuxottica proposed raising its dividend to 3.23 euros per share, up 29% on last year.

($1 = 0.9416 euros)

(Reporting by Jagoda Darlak; editing by Shri Navaratnam and Sonali Paul)