Safestyle shares jump 30%
despite heavy losses
25th September 2018

Safestyle UK saw its shares climb by almost 30% on the back of a £5.7million first-half loss as its CEO signalled the victory in a court battle with aggressive me-too rival Safeglaze as the beginning of the end of the most disastrous chapter in its history.

"The results reflect an unprecedented set of circumstances faced in the first half of the year,” said Mike Gallacher, the turnaround specialist brought in by the company earlier this year See here.

“The litigation we initiated against an aggressive new market entrant has now concluded in an out of court settlement; as a result we expect some recovery in the trading position of the company in the second half.”

The group expects a £6.5million pre-tax loss in the full year, the report continued, but signs of improvement such as a 12% upturn in September order intake since July mean the group expects to show a ‘modest’ profit by Q4 and continues: “The Board's expectations of a return to profitability for the Financial Year 2019 remain unchanged.”

For the six months ended June, The company sank to a pretax loss of £5.7million for the six months to June from a £8.8million profit a year before. Revenue fell to £60.5million from £82.5million the year before.

Safestyle cancelled its interim dividend, after paying a 3.75p per share one a year prior.