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Gucci's bags of cash
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February 8, 2001: 8:14 a.m. ET
CEO of Italian luxury goods firm has $2.5bn to spend
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LONDON (CNN) - Gucci chief Domenico De Sole said on Thursday he was confident about the luxury goods firm's outlook despite slower U.S. economic growth.
"So far we're doing very well," De Sole, chief executive of the Italian leather goods empire, told CNN.com.
 "The big issue is what happens to the yen, as weakness in the yen can hurt the industry as a whole," he said. De Sole said the yen's weakness hasn't hurt business so far.
A weaker yen translates into lower earnings when sales in Japan, a big luxury goods market, are converted back into dollars.
Gucci's namesake brand last month reported a more than 30 percent increase in December revenues of $182 million, with retail sales up 40 percent to $145 million.
Gucci in December posted better-than-expected third-quarter profit of $114 million, up 18 percent from a year earlier, and predicted revenue in the year 2001 will grow to $2.5 billion. De Sole said on Thursday the firm is sticking with those forecasts.
Gucci shares were down 3.6 percent at  97.10 in Amsterdam afternoon trade.
Still looking for good buys
Gucci, whose brands include Yves Saint Laurent and recent buy Bottega Veneta, is still looking to use its $2.5 billion war chest for more acquisitions in the luxury goods sector, De Sole said.
"We do want to be disciplined about it and stay within the luxury goods companies," he said.
He said Bottega Veneta, which Gucci agreed to buy a 66.67 percent stake in on Wednesday, was the ideal kind of product expansion.
"It's an Italian company with a great heritage in leather goods and shoes and has no licences," he said.
Analysts have expressed concerns about luxury firms overstretching their brands and cheapening the name by expanding too fast.
He was also upbeat about success in its legal battles with 20-percent stake holder, French luxury goods titan LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
"We expect to win," he said.
Gucci, which is 42 percent owned by French retailer Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, is trying to kick LVMH out of the firm. LVMH wants the courts to annul a ruling that gave PPR control of Gucci. 
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