B&Q owner EPS up 10% to 13.6p as Brexit gives business a boost
Companies: Kingfisher Plc
Europe's largest home improvement retailer Kingfisher Plc gave its half-year results this morning, reporting revenues of £5.75bn (+6.8% YoY) and pre-tax profit of £436m (+13.5%), and announcing a huge post-Brexit revenue boost.
Kingfisher's underlying PBT of £436m was primarily driven by profit growth in the UK and Poland, and by £17m in favourable FX movements on the group's profits from non-sterling countries. Both revenue and profit were considerably enhanced by weakened sterling, driving the former up 3.3% and the latter up 4.4%.
KCF's adjusted earnings per share were 13.6p, a 10.6% increase on the previous period, and its net cash position doubled to £900m. The company has cautiously raised its dividend 2.2%, reflecting the fact that the results were enhanced by a Brexit-induced sterling collapse.
Speaking about today's results, CEO Véronique Laury said that it had been "business as usual" in the first half, with solid sales and profit growth. She mentions that economic uncertainty was created by the EU referendum, but confirmed there had been no clear evidence of an impact on demand in the business, so far:
"Performance has been driven by Poland and the UK, especially Screwfix, and a stable profit performance in France. This has been achieved alongside managing the start of our ambitious transformation plan, based on creating a unified company where customer needs come first.
Looking longer term, we are starting to build solid foundations to enable us to deliver our five year transformation, which is our key growth driver. We are making good progress on our strategic milestones for this first year and we are on track. The level of transformation activity will increase significantly, however given the expertise and energy of our colleagues we continue to feel confident about the challenges ahead."