Pernod Ricard Cuts Guidance, Blaming Coronavirus
February 13 2020 - 1:23AM
Dow Jones News
By Cristina Roca
Pernod Ricard SA on Thursday slashed its full-year guidance,
saying that it expects the coronavirus outbreak to have a severe
impact on its third fiscal quarter, even as it reported higher net
profit and sales for the first half of its fiscal year.
The French premium spirits maker reported net profit of 1.03
billion euros ($1.12 billion), up from EUR1.02 billion a year
earlier.
Pernod Ricard posted second-quarter sales of EUR2.99 billion, a
rise of 4% on an organic basis, which strips out currency
fluctuations and acquisitions. Sales for the first half rose to
EUR5.47 billion from EUR5.19 billion previously.
Despite the rise in sales and earnings, the maker of Absolut
vodka and Jameson whiskey said that it now expects lower organic
growth in its underlying profit as it assumes the coronavirus to
have a "severe" impact on its business, mainly on the third
quarter. Pernod Ricard cut its guidance of organic growth in profit
from recurring operation for fiscal 2020 to 2%-4%, from previous
expectations of 5%-7%.
"We will stay the strategic course and maintain priority
investments in order to continue maximising long-term value
creation," Chairman and Chief Executive Alexandre Ricard said.
Write to Cristina Roca at cristina.roca@dowjones.com;
@_cristinaroca
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 13, 2020 02:08 ET (07:08 GMT)
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