Pendragon lifts full-year profit guidance

(Sharecast News) - Motor retailer Pendragon lifted its full-year profit guidance on Wednesday as it hailed a strong performance to date in the fourth quarter.
Although it remains cautious about potential further disruption from Covid-19, the company now expects underlying pre-tax profit for the year to the end of December 2021 of around £80m, up from previous guidance of £70m.

Pendragon said it has continued to perform strongly in the first two months of the fourth quarter. While the shortfall in the supply of new vehicles persists, customer demand and order levels have continued at a higher level than last year.

"Despite demand outpacing deliveries, the shortfall in October and November was lower than we had previously anticipated and performance has been supported by a strong gross profit per unit," it said.

"In addition, we are continuing to see robust performance in used vehicles following successful implementation of the group's strategy, which continues to drive improved gross profit per unit, underpinned by favourable market conditions. The overall group performance continues to be supported by cost and efficiency savings realised through the successful delivery of the strategy."

At 0805 GMT, the shares were up 5.9% at 19.69p.