Having more than tripled since March's IPO, shares in fast-growing fashion retailer SuperGroup came back down to earth with a bump after what looked like a pretty decent set of half-year figures.
Both its retail and wholesale businesses produced rapid sales growth. Retail sales climbed 71.7 per cent in the period to £54.4m, as the group increased the number of standalone stores from 42 to 55 and rolled out an additional 13 concessions. And its wholesale business grew revenues by 56.1 per cent to £35.9m as an additional 17 outlets were opened by international partners, taking the total to 53 overseas stores.
However, profit growth was held back by investment in its UK retail business, so the retail unit's underlying profit rose by a pedestrian 12.7 per cent to £5.9m. That was offset by wholesale profits, which more than doubled and helped lift overall underlying pre-tax profit by 68.9 per cent to £13.5m. But analysts expressed concern at the impact of rising input costs on the gross margin, which the group said may not recover to more normal levels until 2013.
Broker Altium Securities expects full-year pre-tax profit of £45.1m, giving EPS of 43.8p, climbing to £65.2m and 59.3p in the year to March 2012.
| ORD PRICE: | 1,370p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.08bn | |
| TOUCH: | 1,365-1,373p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,660p | LOW: 499p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 11 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 139p | NET CASH: | £19.5m | |
| Half-year to 31 Oct | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 54.7 | 7.82 | 14.5 | nil |
| 2010 | 90.3 | 14.6 | 11.3 | nil |
| % change | +65 | +87 | -22 | - |
Ex-div: - Payment: - | ||||
