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LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - British online supermarket and
technology group Ocado reported ballooning annual
pretax losses and a 27% fall in core earnings, mainly due to a
fire which destroyed a hi-tech flagship warehouse in Andover,
southern England.
Ocado, whose shares have risen 35% over the last
year due to overseas technology deals, said on Tuesday its loss
before tax widened to 214.5 million pounds ($276.8 million) in
the year to Dec. 1 2019 versus 44.4 million pounds in 2017-18.
The loss reflected exceptional charges of 94.1 million
pounds relating to the write-down of the Andover site.
Ocado made earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortisation (EBITDA) of 43.3 million pounds ($55.9 million),
versus a re-stated 59.5 million pounds for 2017-18.
That outcome, which also reflected accounting changes and
the costs of share schemes, was broadly in line with analysts'
consensus forecast.
For the 2019-2020 year Ocado forecast retail revenue growth
of 10-15% and international technology fees of 40% or more.
It forecast EBITDA from retail above its revenue growth.
However, EBITDA from UK solutions & logistics and from
international solutions was forecast to decline.
Prior to Tuesday's update analysts' average forecast for
2019-20 EBITDA was 33 million pounds.
($1 = 0.7751 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton)
