The market has baked in the bad news over at posh crockery maker Portmeirion (PMP) following last month's profit warning, which - thankfully - left little surprise for investors in these numbers. The downside is that its third-largest market, South Korea, hasn't bounced back and full-year sales there are likely to be lower than in 2015. India, too - albeit accounting for only a small proportion of revenue - looks unlikely to repeat last year's success and turnover in the first half was £2m less than the comparative period. If the sales it secured through the two months of ownership of £17.5m acquisition Wax Lyrical are excluded, group sales dropped 3.1 per cent year on year.
Thankfully sales in its biggest market, the US, rose by 10.3 per cent on a dollar basis, which translated to a 17.2 per cent surge once converted into sterling. And while the UK suffered a 1.5 per cent dip in turnover, the performance of its own retail outlets and online sales was strong. The business is also second-half weighted, booking around two-fifths of revenue in the opening half for the past two years.
House broker Panmure Gordon sees the recent profit warning as a blip and expects pre-tax profits of £7.5m and EPS of 56.8p for the year to December 2016, down from £8.6m and 65.5p in 2015.
| PORTMEIRION (PMP) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 893p | MARKET VALUE: | £96m | |
| TOUCH: | 885-900p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,267p | LOW: 843p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.5% | PE RATIO: | 14 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 333p* | NET DEBT: | 27% | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 27.9 | 1.76 | 13.0 | 6.1 |
| 2016 | 28.5 | 1.36 | 9.9 | 7.0 |
| % change | +2 | -22 | -24 | +15 |
Ex-div: 8 Sep Payment: 3 Oct *Includes intangible assets of £14m, or 130p a share | ||||
