Kingfisher PLC (LSE:KGF) lowered guidance as it reported a drop in half-year profit alongside flat sales.
The owner of Screwfix and Tradepoint now expects financial year 2023/24 adjusted pre-tax profit of around £590 million, down from previous forecasts of £634 million.
The firm said sales in the third quarter were down 2.4% on a like-for-like basis but still intends to launch a £300 million share buyback.
For the six months to 31 July 2023, sales rose 1.1% to £6.88 billion from £6.81 billion the year before, but pre-tax profit fell 33% to £317 million from £474 million with operating margin down 40 basis points to 36.3% from 36.7%.
Kingfisher said UK & Ireland and France performances were slightly ahead of expectations but this was more than offset by lower-than-expected Poland performance.
UK & Ireland like-for-like sales rose 1.7% with strong market share gains at Screwfix while in France sales fell 3.8% with a resilient performance at Castorama and a weaker result at Brico Dépôt.
But sales in Poland fell 10.9% impacted by strong comparatives and a weaker-than-expected second quarter.
The dividend was left unchanged at 3.80p.