Currys swings to loss, cuts steerage after massive hit to worldwide enterprise By Investing.com
By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com — Currys (LON:) swung to a hefty pretax loss within the first half of its fiscal yr and lower its revenue forecasts for the complete yr, after destocking and a stoop in demand damage its worldwide enterprise.
The group took a £511 million (£1=$1.2380) impairment cost in opposition to its abroad companies, that are concentrated within the Nordic area.
The information was the most recent in a rising story of woe from consumer-facing companies within the U.Ok., albeit the home enterprise escaped the destiny of the worldwide one, as Currys pushed by way of worth will increase to offset falling gross sales volumes. Income within the U.Ok.& Eire was nonetheless down 10% on the yr, reflecting shoppers’ shift away from spending on home equipment because the pandemic light.
“Our Worldwide enterprise…has had a tough first half with margins sharply down,” the group mentioned in an announcement on Thursday. “Decrease demand has left home rivals with extra inventory, which they’re now closely discounting.”
It added it had already taken measures to defend margins and careworn that it anticipated this phenomenon to be non permanent, saying that ” demand will normalise, extra inventory will wash by way of, and rivals will discover unprofitable aggression onerous to maintain.”
Because of the impairment, Currys misplaced £548M earlier than tax within the six months by way of October. Adjusted for the impairment, the loss was £17M, after a revenue of £45M in the identical interval final yr.
Currys mentioned buying and selling because the October closing date had been consistent with developments within the first half, and lower its steerage for full-year pretax revenue (earlier than impairments) to a variety of £100M – £125M, from a earlier estimate of £125M – £145M. It’s nonetheless concentrating on a revenue margin of three% earlier than curiosity and taxes inside three years.
Regardless of the loss, the corporate stored its interim dividend unchanged at 1p a share.
