Shoe king Jimmy Choo (CHOO) benefited from a couple of high-profile marketing opportunities in the first half. The 'Cinderella shoe' worn by the recent Disney movie's starlet Lily James apparently "captured interest globally", and there was also a "cameo appearance" in the opening section of this year's Oscars ceremony.
The interim numbers were prosaic by comparison. The group reported like-for-like retail sales growth of 3.3 per cent, down from 5.7 per cent last year. Strong growth in eastern Asia was somewhat offset by a weak performance from the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, where sales fell 4.5 per cent. That reflected the weakening euro, the decline of Russian tourist shoppers and the closure of the Sloane Street store, among others, for renovation. Management justified the disruption with reassurances that those stores already renovated in line with its "new store concept" were performing particularly strongly.
On the wholesale side - Jimmy Choo also runs a franchise operation - a 3.9 per cent slide in constant-currency sales to £53.9m reflected a one-off shift in the timing of deliveries as part of the group’s move to a new, central Swiss warehouse as well as the transfer of two franchise stores in Singapore and Malaysia into the retail business.
Analysts at Liberum expect pre-tax profits of £33.6m this year, giving EPS of 7.1p, compared to £28.4m and 6.1p in 2014.
| JIMMY CHOO (CHOO) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 146p | MARKET VALUE: | £568m | |
| TOUCH: | 146-147p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 184p | LOW: 139p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | NA | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 118p* | NET DEBT: | 26% | |
| Half-year to 30 June | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 150 | 1.3 | n/a | nil |
| 2015 | 159 | 20.2 | 4.0 | nil |
| % change | +6 | +1424 | - | - |
Ex-div: n/a Payment: n/a *Includes intangible assets of £587m or 151p a share | ||||
