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ENDERBY (Alliance News) - Clothing retailer Next Plc (NXT.L) announced an improvement in first-half pre-tax profit to 271.8 million pounds, from 245.0 million pounds a year before. Pre-tax earnings per share were up 14.0%, the company added. Profit after tax amounted to 217.3 million pounds, an increase, compared with 186.2 million pounds in the 2012 period. Six-month earnings per share were 138.2 pence, higher than the prior-year figure of 112.8 pence.
Operating profits in the first half were at the top end of the firm's expectations, up 7.2%. The company said the difference between profit and sales growth is largely explained by the differing performance of its full price business and markdown sales.
Half-yearly sales of 1.68 billion pounds, were 2.2% ahead of last year's 1.64 billion pounds, driven by a combination of additional NEXT Retail selling space coupled with increased online sales through the NEXT Directory. New selling space added 1.8% to total NEXT Brand sales.
For the full year, Next expects Group pre-tax profit to range between 635 million pounds and 675 million pounds, on a brand sales growth range of 1.5% to 3.5%.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
