L’Oreal shares open down after sales miss forecasts

PARIS (Reuters) – Shares in Maybelline and Lancome maker L’Oreal opened down on Friday after the French beauty group posted a sharper-than-expected fall in second-quarter sales, hurt by lockdowns to fight the coronavirus business.

Shares opened more than 1% lower. They were down 0.6% at 0714 GMT.

Revenue came in at 5.85 billion euros ($6.9 billion) in April-June, down 18.8% on a like-for-like basis, which strips out currency effects and acquisitions.

Analysts had on average expected a 13.1% like-for-like sales drop, according to a consensus forecast cited by Berenberg.

(Reporting by Sarah White; Editing by Edmund Blair)