Kingfisher plc has upgraded its sales outlook but the performance will be lower than last year and above 2019 levels.
The home improvement retailer said it expects to see a 3.7% drop in like-for-like sales in the second half, not as bad as the 5-15% decline it had previously indicated, and still an increase of 9-13% compared to two years ago.
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Full-year adjusted pre-tax profit will be £910-950mln, up from £786mln last year and £544mln in 2019.
The B&Q and Screwfix owner said that it had a good start to the second half of the year, with resilient demand across all markets.
Like-for-like sales in the third quarter to 18 September dipped 0.6% and were up 16.1% compared to the same three months in 2019.
In the six months to 31 July, sales climbed 20% to £7.1bn, with adjusted pre-tax profit surging 62% to £669mln.
Net debt was cut by 34% to £908mln and the FTSE 100 group hiked the interim dividend by 38% to 3.8p.