Dow Jones Newswires: Boohoo Group cuts its 2023 earnings forecast on lower sales, inflationary pressures

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Boohoo Group PLC
BOO,
-12.33%

reported on Wednesday a swing to pretax loss for the first half of fiscal 2023 and downgraded its guidance for the full-year driven by the impact of inflationary pressures and lower-than-expected sales.

The London-listed online fashion retailer said that it expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization–which strips out exceptional and other one-off items–margins for the year ending Feb. 28 to be between 3% and 5%, compared to the previously guided range of 4% and 7%.

“As a result of the impact that the macro-economic and consumer backdrop has had on the group’s revenues in the first half, our expectation is for a similar rate of revenue declines to persist over the remainder of the financial year if these conditions continue,” the company said.

Boohoo reported a pretax loss for the six months ended Aug. 31 of 15.2 million pounds ($16.3 million) compared to a profit of GBP24.6 million a year ago.

Revenue fell to GBP882.4 million from GBP975.9 million.

The company said that adjusted Ebitda for the period fell 58% to GBP35.5 million, impacted by logistics inflation, weaker consumer demand and higher costs.

“We have a clear plan in place to improve future profitability and financial performance through self-help via the delivery of key projects, which will stand us in good stead as macro-economic headwinds ease. We remain confident in the long-term outlook,” Chief Executive John Lyttle said.

Write to Michael Susin at michael.susin@wsj.com