Samsonite shrugs off short seller attack as it plans to add more stores in Asia-Pacific

Two months since the surprise short seller attack on Samsonite, which wiped out more than US$1 billion from its market value at the end of May, the company says that the incident has had no major impact on its operations and that it was still looking to expand.

The Hong Kong-listed shares of the world’s largest luggage maker by volume lost more than 22 per cent of its value at the end of May after Blue Orca questioned its accounting practices.

“The [short seller] attack hasn’t impacted our business at all,” said Subrata Dutta, president of Samsonite Asia-Pacific, during an interview.

“We haven’t lost any market share as we kept focusing on innovations and keeping our customers delighted, that is what matters to us,” he said.

The owner of American Tourister and Tumi brands derives around one third of its revenue from Asia including China and Hong Kong.

The company has had “a good first half”, and is expected to deliver double-digit revenue growth in the second half, said Dutta.

“We are eyeing 22 to 25 new stores in the Asia-Pacific region for Samsonite in the second half of the year to cash in on the growing demand for travellers’ goods there.”