LONDON: Profits at Britain’s biggest companies have hit the lowest level since the financial crisis as fierce competition on the high street cuts margins and uncertainty looms because of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as US president. Although the dire numbers of BHP Billiton skewed the numbers, pre-tax profits were still sharply lower once the mining group was excluded as three in five FTSE 350 groups suffered from falling margins, according to The Share Centre.
“UK plc is entering an unusually uncertain time,” said Helal Miah, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, which collates quarterly numbers on company revenues and profits. The data are for the second quarter and do not cover the full impact of the Brexit vote in June, but Mr Miah said the numbers provide a useful guide to the health of corporate UK.
Pre-tax profits dropped 76.9 per cent on the year in the second quarter to £3.23bn among FTSE 350 companies — the lowest level since 2007. This was reduced to a fall of 5.6 per cent to £8.1bn, once BHP Billiton was excluded from the numbers. At the same time, a widely used barometer of UK investor confidence plummeted to a record low last week. The Hargreaves Lansdown Investor Confidence Index fell 13 per cent in November to 59 points — the lowest level since the index began in 1995.
