Empresaria shares drop on profit warning

Empresaria Group plc (LON: EMR) have seen their shares sink after they issued a warning to shareholders on profit expectations in comparison to the year before.

For 2019, Empresaria expects adjusted pretax profit to be roughly £9.0 million, a drop from £11.4 million the year before.

As the uncertainty of Britian’s stance with the EU continues to shroud over British business, Empresaria have said that profits may be lower than expectations due to slow market conditions.

Empresaria are one of many firms including De La Rue (LON: DLAR) and Dunelm (LON: DNLM) who have alluded to Brexit complications causing slowing business revenues.

The company’s European operations have been affected by a slowdown in the German automotive sector.

Additionally, the group said that its Engineering business was hurt by challenging market conditions and an adverse impact from Brexit.

With material declines in revenue, Empresaria expects the Engineering business to report an annual adjusted operating loss of £1.5 million, which may pose worries to investors.

“While we are disappointed by the performance of our Engineering sector and the challenging economic environment, we believe we are taking the right actions for the long-term benefit of the group. We have a strong, profitable and cash generative business that is being positioned for further growth in net fee income and profitability,” said Chief Executive Officer Rhona Briggs.

As a result of poor trading and deteriorating trading figures, Empresaria have conducted a material restructuring of the business and operations, which is expected to be completed by January 2020.

Action taken includes aligning the group into core sectors, identifying synergies with brand and markets, and identifying cost synergies, including rationalising back office support.

The firm has said their say commenting “Significant actions have been taken in the impacted businesses in the UK and Germany to right size their cost base with the full benefit of this expected to come through in 2020,”

Currently, share of Empresaria are trading at 44.5p per share, falling 11.89%. 30/10/19 11:45BST.

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