COPENHAGEN: Pandora the Danish jeweller, has fallen short of expectations for sales and profits for the first time in 10 quarters but is sticking to its full-year guidance.
The purveyor of charm bracelets and rings on Tuesday announced a 20 per cent increase in revenues to DKr4.3bn ($645m) in the second quarter compared with a year earlier. The average analyst estimate was for DKr4.5bn.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 23 per cent to DKr1.6bn, below estimates of DKr1.7bn.
Pandora has been a darling of European stock pickers, its shares rising 20-fold in the past year following a disastrous profit warning in 2011 shortly after it floated in Copenhagen. But its shares have stagnated this year and fell as much as 7 per cent on Tuesday on disappointment with the results.
Anders Friis, chief executive, insisted the results were “very good”, adding: “If you look at our expectations we are still on track to meet them.”
Pandora had posted a very strong first quarter, which had even surprised the company, he said. Perhaps analysts had got a “little bit ahead of themselves” for the three months to the end of June.
Mr Friis said the company was not affected by Britain’s vote to leave the EU in the second quarter except in terms of currency. Pandora ran several scenarios on how a Brexit might take place and “no matter what we are looking at, we have a strong business in the UK”, it said.
Pandora stuck to its full-year guidance of revenues above DKr20bn — or up at least 20 per cent compared with 2015 and an ebitda margin of more than 38 per cent, up at least 1 percentage point. The ebitda margin was 37.2 per cent for the second quarter and first six months of this year. “We are still very comfortable with our guidance for the year,” added Mr Friis.
Pandora changed strategy after its profit warning, seeking to change its products more rapidly to keep up with fashion trends.
It has conducted an aggressive expansion drive and announced a tie-up with Disney in the US as well as regularly boosting its guidance and beating analyst expectations. It last missed the average forecast for revenues two-and-a-half years ago, according to Bloomberg.
Pandora shares pared back some of the losses and were down 1.3 per cent at lunchtime trading at DKr855.
