The Noni B Limited (ASX: NBL) share price is up 16% in early trade after giving the market a trading update.
Noni B is a fashion retailer that operates a number of brands including Rockmans, Beme and W Lane. It recently acquired a number of other retail chains from Specialty Fashion Group like Rivers, Millers, Katies, Crossroads and Autograph.
Noni B Trading Update
Noni B revealed that it grew sales by 140% to approximately $457 million in the first half of FY19 after the acquisition of the Specialty brands.
Strong Christmas trade saw like for like (LFL) sales growth of 1% in December and that helped LFL sales for the first half declined by 3.1% instead of the previously-predicted 5% decline at the end of December.
Noni B also reported that it had cash holdings of around $65 million at 30 December 2018, resulting in a net cash balance (including debt) of $42.8 million.
Noni B Profit Guidance
The improved trading and “integration efficiencies” has resulted in management predicting that EBITDA will be approximately $29 million for the first half of FY19, compared to the market consensus of $25 million to $30 million (click here to learn what EBITDA means).
Noni B said its full-year EBITDA result is still expected to be around $45 million.
This was a positive update from Noni B, but retail is a very tough industry, so I think it might be better to focus on reliable businesses that can grow profit year after year like the ones our top analyst picked in the free report below.
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