Studio Retail (STU), formerly known as Findel, saw its operating profit from continuing operations plunge by more than half in 2020, as coronavirus knocked consumer confidence. The retailer credited the drop, in part, to the £20m estimated impact of the pandemic on the bad debt charge, as well as the adoption of the new IFRS 16 accounting rules.
Its online value retail division Studio logged modest revenue growth of 3.1 per cent, following a difficult final quarter. In the current period however, there have been signs that trading is beginning to pick up: product sales were up by more than two-fifths in the first 20 weeks of the 2021 financial year. The business also logged more than 2m active customers for the first time in June.
Meanwhile management noted that the sale of its education business in late 2019 to YPO, for a headline consideration of £50m, is still awaiting clearance from the Competition & Markets Authority. The company anticipates it will be granted in December this year.
FactSet places consensus forecast adjusted EPS for 2021 is 27.8p, compared to 10.1p in 2020.
| STUDIO RETAIL GROUP (STU) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 235p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 203m | |
| TOUCH: | 230-235p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 253p | LOW: 141p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | 23 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 87p* | NET DEBT: | £293m | |
| Year to 27 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2016 | 411 | -1.7 | -1.9 | nil |
| 2017 | 457 | -59.4 | -66.9 | nil |
| 2018 | 480 | 22.1 | 22.7 | nil |
| 2019 (restated) | 324 | 26.2 | 23.7 | nil |
| 2020 | 330 | 6.80 | 8.16 | nil |
| % change | +2 | -74 | -66 | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
