Carpetright floored by another profit warning
Carpetright shares slid after the struggling retailer warned fullyear losses would be twice the amount previously expected.
Britain’s biggest carpet seller expects to make a loss in the region of £7m to £9m for the year ending April 28 – twice as much as the £4.3m loss analysts had predicted.
The small-cap firm says like-forlike sales have slipped 10.5pc in the past three months, blaming weak consumer confidence. It means full-year sales will be around 3.6pc lower, the firm said.
The warning comes just four days after the retailer got the green light from shareholders to close 81 stores and negotiate down the rents on 113 as it struggles to balance the books. However, Wilf Walsh, chief executive of Carpetright, said he believed the store closures, along with a proposed £60m fund raising would put the carpet seller back on track.
‘The [restructuring] will enable us to take the tough but necessary actions needed to restore our profitability,’ he said. Its shares dipped 0.3pc, or 0.15p, to 42.5p. The FtSe 100 ended the day up 0.09pc or 7.09 points at 7509.3, while the FtSe 250 rose 0.07pc or 13.42 points to 20285.05.
glencore propped up the bluechip index after the miner clashed with a former business partner over royalties in key sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Israeli businessman Dan Gertler, a former business partner, is seeking $3bn in damages from Glencore over alleged unpaid royalties and has served the miner with an order freezing its assets in the country. Glencore denies it has breached any agreement with Gertler and is thought to be appealing against the action this week. Shares slumped nearly 5pc, or 18.3p, to 350.7p. Sticking with the FTSE 100, packaging firm
Mondi bought an industrial bag maker in Egypt for £20.8m. The National Company for Paper Products and Import & Export (NPP) operates one plant in Giza, near Cairo, serving mostly regional customers.
Erik Bouts, chief executive of fibre packaging at Mondi, said: ‘The acquisition of NPP complements our network of plants in the growing Middle East region and provides us with a leading position in Egypt.’
Mondi shares edged 0.2pc, or 4p, lower to 2026p. Analysts at Investec upgraded
Marks & Spencer from ‘sell’ to ‘hold’, predicting chief executive Steve Rowe’s new five-year plan will bring about ‘profit stabilisation’. Shares crept nearly 0.4pc, or 1.1p, to 287.7p.
Fashion retailer Next also got some broker treatment, with RBC Capital Markets increasing its target price from 5700p to 6000p and giving it an ‘outperform’ rating over the strength of its online business.
RBC said: ‘We think the longterm online growth opportunity at Next remains under-appreciated.’
On AIM, a profit warning wiped more than a fifth off the value of aerospace engineering firm Velocity Composites.
Despite half-year revenue forecast to be 20pc higher year-onyear, the firm says full-year earnings and profit will be below market forecasts because of delay with a major contract worth £5m this financial year.
Broker Finn Cap cut the target price from 125p to 71p. Shares nosedived 21pc, or 14p, to 52.5p.
Shares in Chariot Oil & gas bombed following a disappointing drilling expedition in Morocco. The AIM-listed firm said it did not ‘encounter a hydrocarbon accumulation’ its Rabat Deep 1 well. Shares sank 28pc, or 3.34p, to 8.56p. Fellow AIM-listed oil company
88 energy plunged after it announced plans to raise up to £9.3m to ‘identify and exploit opportunities on the north slope of Alaska’. Shares tanked 17.6pc, or 0.48p, to 2.22p.