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LONDON (Alliance News) - H&T Group PLC Wednesday said it expects to deliver a full-year pretax profit in line with current market expectations, as its retail sector demonstrated sales and gross profit growth in the first half of the year and it is confident it will continue to perform despite tough market conditions.
The pawnbroker said that retail has performed well in the first six months of 2015, with sales and gross profit ahead of the prior year. It said the recently-established products have also shown encouraging growth and the personal loan book now stands at GBP3.4 million compared with GBP2.6 million at the end of June 2014.
However, H&T warned that the sector as a whole has been severely hit by market conditions and lower gold prices, although it said it is positioned to succeed as conditions improve. Net debt at June 30 was at GBP8.9 million, down from GBP13.5 million a year before.
H&T added that it has closed one store this year and as at June 30 had 190 trading units.
"The number of stores in the sector continues to reduce as a result of the trading environment and changing regulation, we would expect this to continue during the remainder of the year. The board believes that the group is well-positioned to take advantage of this changing marketplace as and when opportunities arise," the company said in a statement.
Shares in H&T were trading up 0.5% at 200.00 pence Wednesday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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