LONDON (Alliance News) - Property services group Countrywide PLC on Tuesday reiterated its expectations of a drop in earnings, as well as reporting a fall in first quarter income due to continued market uncertainty.
In its annual results in March, Countrywide had said it expected adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for the six months to the end of June to fall by between GBP3.0 million and GBP5.0 million.
Prior to its annual general meeting later on Tuesday, the group updated that it expects the Ebitda reduction to be at the worse end of the range, at GBP5.0 million year-on-year.
However, self-help measures implemented by Countrywide to re-align its cost base to the lower level of market activity are expected to start producing benefits in the second half of the year.
Therefore, the group expects adjusted Ebitda for 2019 to be in line with management expectations. For all of 2018, Countrywide reported adjusted Ebitda of GBP32.7 million.
For the first quarter to the end of March, income decreased to GBP140.3 million from GBP144.6 million for the same period the year before, due to Brexit uncertainty affecting property markets in London and the South of England.
Shares in Countrywide were down 2.0% at 6.90 pence on Tuesday.
