The Douglas perfumery chain looks a little more careful about profit development after a cautious start of the new financial year.
The company observes a reluctance of the customer that has been persistent since December: inside, as can be seen from the quarterly report presented on Thursday morning in Düsseldorf. In the past first business quarter (until the end of December), the profit development was left behind the market expectations. That shocked the investors: inside, the stock slipped in two digits.
In the morning she was in minus, which meant the lowest level since the end of August. Douglas had returned to the stock exchange in March, the issue price of the share was 26 euros. However, the course has not seen this level since then. Most recently, the paper cost 18.18 euros on Thursday, which has decreased by almost 30 percent since the IPO.
The adjusted operational result (BER EBITDA) expects management in the financial year, which was current until the end of September, at the lower end of the previously communicated range of 855 to 885 million euros. In terms of sales, it unchanged between 4.7 and 4.8 billion euros.
In the past first quarter, sales rose by almost six percent to 1.65 billion euros compared to the same period last year. Before interest, taxes, depreciation and special effects (over EBITDA) remained 353 million euros and thus 1.5 percent more than a year ago, while analyst: on the inside had expected a larger plus. The profit loss of shareholders, thanks to the lower financing costs, rose by 30 percent to 163 million euros, but was also behind the expectations.
Douglas boss Sander van der Laan reported “strong dynamics of sales” in October and November, into which important sales days such as the singles’ Day and Black Friday had fallen. In December, however, the dynamics weakened what continued in the first weeks of the new calendar year, said van der Laan, according to the announcement. Douglas found this to be felt in particular in Germany and France.
According to Jefferies analyst Molly Wylenzek, growth in the beauty industry would slow down. But she was now surprised by the speed.
Douglas was listed from 1966 to 2013, then the financial investor Advent and the Kreke founding family had taken the company off the stock exchange. Even after returning to the stock market parquet almost a year ago, they remained the main shareholders as an old owner with the financial investor CVC. CVC indirectly holds more than half of the share capital.
Note d. Red.: This post was updated on February 13th at 9.14 a.m.