Half-year adjusted pre-tax profit of £35.8m at fast-fashion e-tailer Boohoo (BOO) comfortably beat analysts’ expectations, as did the reported 50 per cent acceleration at the top line. This was down to a particularly strong second quarter, which left brand sales up approximately 17 per cent, and fed into stronger retail gross margins. The group also finished the period with a healthy cash balance ahead of moving one of its brands – PrettyLittleThing – to a new warehouse in Sheffield; the rundown in stock helped net cash rise by £36.4m to £156m.
PrettyLittleThing continues to be the star performer for Boohoo. Co-founded in 2012 by Umar Kamani and Adam Kamani – both sons of Boohoo co-founder and co-chief executive Mahmud Kamani – the company was acquired by Boohoo nearly two years ago. Revenues here jumped by 132 per cent to £169m, after the number of active customers shopping with PrettyLittleThing nearly doubled to 4m and the number of orders more than doubled to 6.5m. Retail gross margins also widened by 200 basis points to 59 per cent.
Analysts at Peel Hunt still expect pre-tax profit of £68.5m for the year ending February 2019, giving EPS of 4.4p, compared with £51m and 3.4p in FY2018.
| BOOHOO (BOO) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 208.6p | MARKET VALUE: | £2.4bn | |
| TOUCH: | 208.6-208.9p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 268p | LOW: 140p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 71 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 20p | NET CASH: | £156m | |
| Half-year to 31 Aug | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2017 | 263 | 20.3 | 1.3 | nil |
| 2018 | 395 | 24.7 | 1.4 | nil |
| % change | +50 | +22 | +14 | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na |
