South African fashion retailer Truworths lowers earnings forecast
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New York – The South African apparel retailer Truworths International Ltd has issued a reviewed earnings forecast, lowering its core earnings.
The fashion group took a 97 million pound impairment charge related to its Office shoe chain in Britain, as explained in a corporate announcement echoed by Reuters.
The publicly traded company (South African-listed) said full-year core headline earnings per share were expected to fall between 7 percent and 9 percent to between 558 cents and 570 cents.
On the upside, the apparel group also said its retail sales increased by 3.7 percent to 18.6 billion rand for the 52-week period ended June, 30.
Truworths blamed this weaker forecast on a tough trading environment in the UK due to Brexit-driven uncertainty, as well as on pressures on store-based retailing as shoppers move online had hit the profitability of the Office business.
On the latter, it’s worth recalling that Truworths announced last month that Office had entered into debt restructuring talks with its lenders. The company said trading space for its Office division decreased 5.2 percent mainly due to the closure of some House of Fraser concession stores.