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LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Britain's Marks & Spencer
on Wednesday slumped to the first loss in its 94 years as a
publicly listed company after clothing sales were hammered by
the COVID-19 pandemic.
M&S, one of the best known names in UK retail, said it made
a pretax loss before one-off items of 17.4 million pounds
($22.6 million) in the 26 weeks to Sept. 26 - its first loss
since listing its shares on the stock market in 1926.
The outcome was ahead of analysts' average forecast of a
loss of 59 million pounds and compares to a profit of 176.5
million pounds in the same period last year.
Clothing and home sales fell 21.3% in the second quarter
after a first-quarter decline of 61.5%.
($1 = 0.7705 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Alistair Smout and Paul
Sandle)
