L'Oreal Q3 sales miss expectations as luxury suffers

French cosmetics giant L'Oreal missed third-quarter sales expectations and said on Thursday that demand for its luxury products had suffered a slowdown in Asia and at airports.

The maker of Lancome and Armani perfume saw its sales rise 3.7 percent like-for-like in the third quarter to Sept. 30 to 5.938 billion euros ($6.51 billion), falling short of the market consensus of 4.3 percent.

"L'Oreal Luxe experienced a temporary slowdown as a result of market turbulence over the summer in Asia, Hong Kong and in Travel Retail," the French group said in a statement.

Luxury like-for-like sales growth slowed to 4.2 percent from 5.8 percent in the second quarter and 6.7 percent in the first.

L'Oreal did not provide a forecast other than that it aimed to outperform the market and achieve significant growth in profit and sales in 2015.

The company's active cosmetics division, which includes La Roche Posay creams and Roger & Gallet soaps, posted the group's strongest performance with sales up 8 percent on a comparable basis.

$1 = 0.9124 euros