LONDON (Alliance News) - SuperGroup PLC on Thursday maintained its profit guidance for the year as it outlined the outcome of its strategic review, including the acquisition of its North American distribution licence and plans to start paying dividends in its 2016 financial year.
SuperGroup said it expects its profit for the 2015 financial year to be in the GBP60 million to GBP65 million range, in line with its previous guidance.
The FTSE 250-listed clothing retailer said it has acquired the exclusive rights to distribution Superdry products in North America, terminating the 30-year licence deal awarded to partner SDUSA LLC in 2008. It follows on from the acquisition of licences from its Scandinavian, Spanish and German partners in the past 18 months, the company said.
SuperGroup said it will pay GBP22.3 million in cash for the licence, which will include stock, shop fixtures and fittings, plus 15 leases.
It expects a one-off transaction cost of GBP0.7 million and said non-underlying costs are expected to be GBP9 million for the financial year to April 26 and a further GBP8 million in 2016.
The SDUSA business made a GBP5.1 million operating loss in the year to the end of December, SuperGroup said, which it expects to halve in its 2016 financial year. Consequently, the company said the deal is expected to be earnings-dilutive in 2016, but it expects the North American operation to become profitable from its 2017 financial year.
Elsewhere, SuperGroup said it plans to starts paying dividends to its shareholders starting in its 2016 financial year. It said it intends to adopt a dividend formula which would mean the interim dividend is equivalent to around a third of the total dividend payout for the year.
The company also briefly said it has signed a collaboration with actor Idris Elba to produce a premium clothing line which will sold as part of the autumn/winter 2015 season.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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