WH Smith warns of hit from virus as profit falls

WH Smith PLC reported Thursday a slight fall in pretax profit for the first half of fiscal 2020 despite rising revenue, and said it expects results in the second half to be hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.K. books, magazines and newspaper retailer–which has stores in airports and train stations–made a pretax profit of 63 million pounds ($78.1 million) for the six months ended Feb. 29 compared with GBP65 million a year earlier.

Revenue rose 7% year-on-year to GBP747 million, or 1% on a like-for-like basis, driven by a 19% jump in travel revenue.

The board declared no interim dividend for the period in an effort to preserve liquidity amid the crisis.

“There was very little impact of Covid-19 on our first-half results, however inevitably the performance in the second half will be very different,” Chief Executive Carl Cowling said.

Matteo Castia

Source:marketwatch.com