Customer numbers bringing in gold items to sell to Albemarle & Bond fell sharply in May and June, dragging down its year-on-year growth rate from 50 per cent earlier in the year to mid single digits. So the pawnbroker now expects profits for the year to June to be below City expectations. Shares in the company retreated 7 per cent to 256p on the news, and broker Peel Hunt has reduced its estimates for full-year pre-tax profits from £24.3m to £21.5m and EPS from 31.8p to 26.9p (against £21m and 28p in 2011). It is not yet clear whether the reduced footfall can be blamed on the wet weather but, given the uncertainty, we are downgrading our advice from buy to hold.
All the other divisions performed in line with expectations, with improvements in retail trading in the fourth quarter, while Speedloan, the unsecured lending unit, reported a slightly lower rate of growth.
