Shares in sofa retailer DFS (LON:DFS) rose 5 percent on Wednesday morning, after maintaining its dividend despite a profit fall of over 50 percent.
Profit before tax plunged 58.1 percent to £7 million in the 26 weeks to the end of January, down from £16.7 million in the same period last year. DFS attributed the fall to £4.6 million of non-underlying costs and the “impacts of acquired businesses”.
Revenue before acquisitions also fell by 3.5 percent to £366.5 million, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA) down 7.4 percent to £30 million.
Despite the troubling figures, the sofa retailer maintained its interim dividend of 3.7p per share. It also appeased investors by saying that it expects things to pick up in the second half of the financial year with a stronger year-on-year revenue trend than the first half.
DFS Chief Executive Officer Ian Filby said: “We have seen a strengthening trading performance across the first half of the financial year and through February into March. We therefore remain confident that, despite the current challenging market conditions, the Group will deliver modest growth in EBITDA and generate strong cashflow across this financial year, in-line with our expectations.”
Shares in DFS are currently trading up 5.65 percent at 179.60 (0823GMT).
