Richemont can cope with slowdown-Chairman

GENEVA, Swizerland, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Switzerland's Richemont (CFR.VX) is well placed to cope with difficult trading conditions, the luxury goods group's chairman told reporters on Thursday.

"Richemont's geographical positioning and strong balance sheet mean that it is in a better position than competitors and this might even be an opportunity to gain market share," Johann Rupert said after an extraordinary general meeting in Geneva.

The seller of Cartier watches was hit by a slowdown in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 2001 attacks and the 2003 SARS scare, but Rupert, whose family controls Richemont, said the group was now a "very different company than it was five or eight years ago".

"We expanded into areas such as China. The company is a lot better positioned. We still have sufficient liquidity of around 1.1 billion euros ($1.51 billion) at Richemont for working capital purposes and for acquisitions should they come up in the future," he said.

"Maybe we will be saved by the fact that we can only produce 60 percent of demand. Maybe it is lucky that we didn't expand too much in good times and were conservative," Rupert said.

Shareholders backed the spin-off of its stake in British American Tobacco (BATS.L) at the EGM, making Richemont Europe's second biggest pure luxury goods specialist. (Reporting by Katie Reid; Editing by David Cowell)