Stay at home DIY fans will hit Kingfisher
The force is strong with Disney
B&Q OWNER Kingfisher is set to become the latest retailer to warn that the Covid-19 crisis will hurt trading, when it announces its fullyear results on Tuesday.
Kingfisher has already closed stores in Spain and France due to the crisis and the effective lockdown announced by the Government on Friday is likely to hit UK sales.
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said: “Last week Kingfisher’s management said that thus far there had been little indication of an impact on demand, but that was then and this is now.
“While the company had seen a decent start to the year with growth strongly supported by e-commerce, the next few weeks are likely to be much more difficult as consumers are encouraged to stay at home in the face of a country and Europewide lockdown.”
According to analysts, Kingfisher’s
ENTERTAINMENT giantwalt Disney will launch its pay-tv service in the UK and seven European nations ontuesday, to help it compete with Netflix.
The Disney+ service will be available on a smartphone and tablet computer app, as well as Sky and Google Chromecast. It will pre-tax profits will be up 63.6 per cent to £526.7million due to the absence of large store closure and restructuring costs last year.
However, the group has been fighting to turn around declining sales at B&Q in the UK and Ireland and at its French counterpart Castorama.
As a result, revenues are forecast to be down 2.3 per cent to £11.4billion. The market is expecting a 2.94 per cent cut to the full year dividend, due to leave it at 10.48p per share.
Last week a number of companies axed their dividends and put in place measures to conserve cash in response to the coronavirus outbreak and the market will be eager to see if Kingfisher follows suit.
The DIY giant is in talks with landlords to switch from quarterly to monthly rental payments in a bid to keep cash reserves. offer subscribers more than 500 films, 300 series and 26 exclusive original shows and films.
Its exclusive content includes the Starwars spin-off TV series The Mandalorian and the National Geographic show The World According To Jeff Goldblum. Disney+ will be available for £5.99 a month or £59.99 for an annual subscription, but those purchased before Tuesday will cost £49.99.
It was launched in the US and the Netherlands in November and has 28.6 million subscribers.