Catalogue and online giant Shop Direct has posted its first ever pretax profit this morning prompting speculation the business may soon be sold.
The former Littlewoods and Argos Additions business was formed in a flurry of corporate activity in 2002 and 2003 and is owned by the reclusive Barclay Brothers.
The group, which owns littlewoods.com, isme,com and very.co.uk among other sites, said it made a pretax profit of £6.6 million in the year to June 30 compared to a loss of £57.7 million the previous year.
'Exceptional' restructuring costs were reduced from £46.2 million to £8.4 million which helped achieve the improvement.
'These results mark an important milestone in the journey of Shop Direct into a world class digital retailer. We're delighted to report a positive pretax profit for the first time in 10 years, giving us a solid platform from which to move forward,' said chief executive Alex Baldock.
Sources said the sudden improvement in pretax performance could indicate a preparation for an IPO or a sale of the business. Several other online retailers including boohoo.com, electricals site ao.com and The Hut are also rumoured to be preparing IPO or refinancing plans.
Online accounted for 78 per cent of the £1.69 billion sales compared to 75 per cent a year before. Over a quarter (27 per cent) of online sales were from mobiles.
The number of catalogues more than halved during the year from 8.2 million in 2012 to 4 million. Group sales increased 1 per cent.
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