(CercleFinance.com) – Kingfisher lowered its annual forecasts on Wednesday, mainly citing weak demand in the French market.
The British group, owner of the B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama and Brico Dépôt brands, says it only expects an adjusted pre-tax profit of around 560 million pounds over the entire 2023/2024 financial year, compared to 590 million before.
Its free cash flow is now expected to be around 470 million pounds for the financial year, and no longer above 500 million.
For its third fiscal quarter, ended at the end of October, Kingfisher reported a 3.9% drop in like-for-like sales year-on-year, due to ‘less good than expected’ performance in France.
In France, its sales on a comparable basis fell by 8.6% to one billion pounds, where RBC analysts were counting on around 1.1 billion.
In the UK and Ireland, its largest market, sales rose 1.1% to £1.6 billion, in line with RBC’s expectations.
The company also indicated its intention to carry out its new share buyback program worth 300 million pounds.
Following this publication, Kingfisher shares lost more than 6% in early trading on Wednesday morning, which pushed its annual score into the red (-6%) and valued the company at 4.3 billion pounds.
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