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But when was the last time they met guidance FED? Even if they met that guidance though, as you say, it won’t be improving FCF alone.

I want to see evidence of any turnaround in terms of profit, cash flow and net debt - none of which are improving (yet) - though they’ve dressed the numbers up to look as if they have.

The cost reductions are good but they have needed to be so much just to offset the huge reduction in revenue. So they’ve done a lot to stand still but more is needed to actually start going the right direction.

In the meantime what Dan has definitely achieved is lining his own pocket.

Yes, the sp has doubled which is really great but there are still some here with averages well over £1 so I doubt they’ll be celebrating too much…yet.

If it doubles again then I’ll be gone but not because I’m one of your imaginary shorts but because I’ll have finally escaped my long with a healthy profit - so fingers crossed they really start delivering on the numbers and not just the rhetoric.

I haven’t missed out on the rally though I did miss out by getting too greedy and not selling some more at 26p.

I’m not sure why you need different aliases for different phones. More likely you just a multi-alias ramper or part of some ramping set up.

Yes, net debt is down from last half/year but this is because they sold their head office building and issued equity. The underlying cash flow of the business was negative and since the end of FY25 has remained so to the tune of £33m. That is bad and since they only have £30m cash left plus little headroom on their RCF it is a big problem - unless they turn the cash position of the business around or sell more assets.

Interesting that you posted your reply under a different name - oops!

And not knowing the acronym doesn’t make it any better.

“But if Shein eventually do buy PLT it solves the problem above.”

Agree Alex, for now anyway, but eventually they have to start making cash as they can’t rely forever on asset sales.

Net debt has increased by £33m since last financial year end and two days ago you didn’t even know what PLT was so please forgive me if I take your opinions with a large pinch of salt Alessandro.

Dan only starts collecting on the package in three years time depending on the share price then so in that respect hitting 46p soon is irrelevant. It is simply the disproportionate nature of the awards that annoys me and not getting shareholder approval for them.

Success should be rewarded - not huge amounts for just getting the share price back to only a fraction of what it was.

“If the share price gets to 46p why should anyone care about Dan's renumeration”

Because it’s disproportionate. £6m for getting the sp back to barely a tenth of what it once was and not all that much more than when he took over.

It may go down well with newbies seeing a multi-bagger but for long suffering LTHs like me it’s a bit of a slap in the face.

Having said that after averaging down I’ll be in profit and be long gone by 46p so by then I won’t care either after all. :-)

I hope so Parsnip but if it does get to 46p you only get your money back - Dan gets £6m!

Peaky, there is nothing wrong with optimism but I prefer to see it backed up with numbers - which I can’t see yet - and plenty of companies have prospered in these ‘subdued times’ including in retail and even clothing.

“Got to be worth a mint after that update...”

Why? I’ve explained why I feel the rise was surprising. Can anybody give their reasoning on why they feel it was justified?

It will be interesting to see if the share price increases today after its impressive, but to me surprising, rise yesterday.

There were lots of bold words as usual talking up the results and the future in the release but the numbers didn’t really back these up.

Strip away the sugar-coating and underlying EBITDA only increased by a tiny amount (£0.2m, or £1m if you exclude PLT) despite all the cost savings and overall they continued to make losses despite a £30m+ one-off positive from de-recognition of leases liabilities. This means they’ve needed to run hard to stand still as revenues plummeted and they need to do much more to be profitable again. They emphasised the reduction in net debt but this is due to the cash raised from equity and property sales in H2 last year. Since then though net debt has INCREASED by £33m as they continue to lose cash (and now have less than that in total).

They have at least stopped the rot though and perhaps that is why the sp rose so much yesterday? To power on from here though they need to become profitable and cash generative (excluding property sales) once more which I think they will struggle to be based on the numbers.

What disappointed me more than the results and outlook though was the insanely generous bonus scheme that they are sidestepping shareholder approval for. Forget the silly numbers at the £3m sp ‘target’, it pays out huge amounts well below that and starts benefiting Dan as soon as the sp goes above 35p ie only back to where it was so recently!

“Odd though there is a sense of calm from LTH..”

Really? This board has seen posts from many of them saying either they are having doubts or have already given up and sold out whilst the share price (including barely noticeable spike after the latest RNS) suggests that feeling goes for the market more generally as well.

To say nothing has changed is correct in one sense (FG continues to simply string investors along without any tangible evidence) but the claimed benefits from ALL three methods have now been reduced significantly and that is a huge change.

SCB - I think your predictions are pretty on the money except for revenue growth in Debs as I would expect that to still be healthy even though I agree that the rate of growth in its GMV will be lower. That is simply because as the labels' contribution to the Debenhams numbers continues to fall the revenue growth will be more influenced by the MP figures. In other words the revenue growth figure will gradually move closer to the GMV growth figure.

So I would be surprised if revenue growth for Debs was not at least 10% at half-year and maybe even more than 20%? Your overall revenue range of £530-£550m is though very reasonable I think. However, your overall loss figure maybe too high (I'd be expecting around half of what you suggest but hard to predict as it depends so much on how many one-offs they continue to push through).

You didn't mention FCF (I expect this to still be negative) and it certainly will be interesting to see what the update is (or isn't!) for PLT and what new wheeze they may come up with this time to make the results seem better than they really are.

In any event there certainly doesn't seem to be a lot of confidence in the results judging by the sp performance and BOO's own, continued silence.

"Beginning to wonder if it is game over for this type of business."

This is my feeling also and the lacklustre ASOS results and outlook don't give much encouragement to the contrary.

Like BOO they are posting thumping losses (and trying to hide behind adjusted numbers and lots of words) but unlike BOO they are at least cash flow positive (and nearly £100m ahead of BOO) - though it is heading in the wrong direction and they only expect breakeven for the next year. So neither company are anywhere near to making proper profits and it is difficult to see where they might come from. The only good thing coming out of the results from ASOS for BOO is that at least they've set the bar very low - and hopefully BOO won't be able to manage to limbo under it next week?

You’re the one that appears to need to get a life ojogger, appearing just to start an argument only to then run away. What was the point of that? Surely you have better things to do in that ‘life’ of yours?

Oops, sorry, you told everybody not to bother replying. Naughty me.

Happy to oblige…in the absence of any meaningful discussion of QBT.

An excellent diagnosis OSD…of you 👍