Mulberry´s profit warning drags Burberry down
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The FTSE100 was down 28.05 points at 6,544.28 by the end
of session, while the broader FTSE250 shredded 27.52 points to close at 15,688.31. Mulberry was in everyone´s mouth after the stock dropped 207.75 pence - or 23 percent - to 691.75 pence after issuing a profit warning.Mulberry warned its annual profit would be behind forecasts due to heavy Christmas discounting in the UK and weak wholesale demand in South Korea. Total retail sales at the coveted handbags manufacturer for the 17 weeks to January 25 were down 3 percent year-on-year, including a 7 percent decline over the Christmas period.
On the wake of the news, Mulberry's shares fell by 26 percent, wiping around 140 million pounds off its value. "Due to tough trading conditions over the Christmas period which saw significant discounting across the market, Mulberry has experienced lower than expected UK retail sales," Chief Executive Bruno Guillon said in a statement Wednesday.
Brit fashion peer Burberry found itself dragged down, losing 8.5 pence to 1,464.5 pence.
In Italy, private equity group Permira is said to be in talks to buy a controlling stake in Italian fashion group Roberto Cavalli. However, a deal was not imminent, people with knowledge of the matter said, reported Reuters.
Italian weekly 'Il Mondo' reported last week that Permira was in talks to acquire Cavalli's business for 450 million euros, or 600 million dollars.
Across the Atlantic, stocks in Wall Street noted important drops after a mixed bag of earnings and ahead of a Federal Reserve decision. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 90 points at 15,840, the S&P500 lost 8 points at 1,785 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 17 points to 4,081.
Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) had its price objective reduced by Sterne Agee from 62 to 57 dollars in a report released on Tuesday. Nordstrom has a 52 week low of 52.16 dollars and a 52 week high of 63.72 dollars, which gives the company a market cap of 11.259 billion dollars.
Elsewhere, shares of Francesca's Holdings (NASDAQ: FRAN) sank 5.5 percent today after Goldman Sachs downgraded the fashion apparel retailer from neutral to sell.
Along with the downgrade, analyst Lindsay Drucker Mann lowered her price target to 16 dollars, highlighted 'The Motley Fool'.