Frasers Group Share News (FRAS)

(Sharecast News) - Frasers Group on Friday said its annual results would be delayed by at least a month - the third time it four years - as it cited issues with auditing figures for its newly-acquired Studio Retail business.

The company, which owns Sports Direct, House of Fraser and Flannels, said that due to the timing of the acquisition and" resource constraints within the audit industry as a whole", it could not include Studio Retail's figures until September.

In a statement released late on Friday, Frasers said the rest of the group's annual results would be released in July, as planned, and the company said it continued to expect pre-tax profits of between £300m -£350m for the year to April 24.

Frasers paid £26.8m to acquire Studio Retail, which sells everything from clothing, footwear and furnishings to gifts and cards, out of administration in February.

It said Studio Retail's financial statements "contain significant judgemental areas, particularly around consumer credit related provisions", which needed "specialist skills and experience" to audit.

In 2019 as it traded under the Sports Direct banner, the company delayed its results several times and then shocked the market with a €674m (£614m) tax bill. A year, and one auditing firm, later there was another pause as Frasers said it needed more time to complete accounting scrutiny.