7:45 am, June 18, 2021
Dealer group Inchcape has said its current trading performance has ‘exceeded expectations’.
In a trading update issued to the London Stock Exchange this morning (Jun 18), the dealer group, which trades across five continents and in 36 markets, said it’s trading strongly but so far the global semiconductor storage had not affected its operations.
In the update, the company said: ‘Following our Q1 update on April 29, 2021, the encouraging trends observed across the business have continued, and the group’s performance to date has exceeded our expectations.
‘During the period we have seen our businesses benefit both from an uptick in demand and margin resilience.
‘There is still a high level of uncertainty about the second half, both in terms of the pandemic situation and issues relating to supply due to shortages of semi-conductors, which have had a limited impact on the group to date.’
It added: ‘We expect the strong first half performance will underpin our full year results, and expect to deliver FY21 profit before tax (pre-exceptionals) significantly ahead of the published market consensus (£216m).’
Investors were pleased with the news, with shares jumping 3.5 per cent by lunchtime on Friday.
Inchcape plans to publish its interim results on July 29, 2021.
The dealer group’s Q1 results released last month led to financial experts increasing their predicted value of the company.
As reported at the time by Car Dealer, reported group revenue rose by two per cent on an organic basis, with distribution revenue up by four per cent year on year, again on an organic basis.
Earlier, Inchape has said it was offloading some of its Russian dealerships for £70m as it sought to increase its focus on distribution.
Inchcape agrees sale of Russian dealerships for £70m to further focus on distribution
