Some red faces at DIY group Kingfisher on Tuesday.
The company has been bounced into the early release of its half-year trading figures:
It has come to our attention that, due to an administrative error, some draft figures were circulated externally on the afternoon of the 7 September. Whilst the numbers have not yet been formally approved, Kingfisher recognises its regulatory responsibilities and therefore today announces that it expects to report adjusted pre-tax profit in the range of £285m-£290m for the six months to 1 August 2009.
This corresponds to a retail profit in the range of £345m-£350m, broadly made up of UK and Ireland £148m, France £146m and Other International £53m. These figures are yet to be approved by the Kingfisher Audit Committee and the Kingfisher Board and so could be subject to change.
And here’s Monday’s price action in Kingfisher.
That’s a 2.3 per cent gain, although some context is needed. The FTSE 100 rose 80 points yesterday and closed at a fresh high for the year, so the advance does not look out of the ordinary.
However, Kingfisher’s figures do appear to be forecast-beating.
One of the big US banks we have talked to was expecting a pretax profit of £257m for the half year, while Oriel Securities says the performance of Kingfisher’s UK and French businesses look to be ahead of expectations by 14 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.
Unsurprisingly, shares in Kingfisher have added a further 6.9p to 223.9p in early trading.
But investors will have to wait until later this month to find out how Kingfisher has managed to do so well:
As previously announced, Kingfisher will release its interim results on 17 September 2009. As normal, Kingfisher will provide more detail on the first half of the year, along with an outline of its plans for the balance of the year, in what is expected to be a challenging trading environment.
Unless that is, there is another administrative error.
Related link:
Correction to trading statement – FT Alphaville