Homing in on a profit due to DIY frenzy
B&Q owner Kingfisher is expected to say that business is booming – with first half net profits up more than 60 per cent to £509million – at its results ontuesday.
Thanks to high demand from people looking to do up their homes during lockdown and the buoyant housing market, Kingfisher’s revenues for the six months to the end of July are expected to have risen from £5.9billion to £7.1billion. Like-for-like sales at B&Q are expected to be up 28.4 per cent, while Screwfix is tipped to be 26.5 per cent higher. Although sales at its French businesses are forecast to have risen 24.4 per cent, Poland is likely to disappoint, with sales expected to be down 4.6 per cent.
The City will be looking to Kingfisher to pay an interim dividend for the first time since the pandemic started. Its last half year payout was in November 2019, when it paid an interim dividend of 3.33p per share or approximately £70million to investors.
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: “For this fiscal year as a whole, analysts are looking for 11.2p a share, so it seems likely the company will declare an interim payment.” The DIY giant halted dividend payments when the Covid-19 outbreak started but resumed them in March, when it announced an 8.25p full-year payout.