Kingfisher: shares drop lower after 'mixed' results.

(CercleFinance.com) - Kingfisher shares are down 3% on the London Stock Exchange today, after the home improvement retailer presented "mixed" results for the year ended 31 January 2017.


The company, which runs the B&Q and Screwfix chains in Britain as well as Castorama and Brico Depot in France, said on Wednesday that final group results were "ahead on all key metrics".

Underlying pre-tax profit of 787 million pounds was up 14.7%, driven by the UK and Poland, with total adjusted sales at constant currencies up 1.7% at 12.2 billion pounds.

But Haitong Research analysts said the performance was "mixed," with France being particularly weak.

"The French business has come in with quite disappointing sales for the full year as the fourth-quarter has clearly continued weak, especially in Castorama where full year like-for-like of -3% compared with 9-month of -2.7% and consensus -1.9%," the brokerage firm wrote in a report.

Haitong hence remains a seller, based on the challenges posed by the static nature of the UK and French markets and the impact of the digital switch.

Kingfisher also announced this morning that it has commissioned Goldman Sachs to purchase shares under a 50 million pound program, the purpose of which is to reduce its share capital.

Its shares are currently down 3% at 335.2 pence.

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