‘No plans to do this at the moment’: Superdry boss plays down bid to go private
Superdry’s chief executive Julian Dunkerton has reassured investors he has “no plans to do this at the moment”.
The CEO said he was reserving the right to participate in an offer, were it to materialise within the next six months.
The comments come after reports emerged in early December that Dunkerton was mulling a potential buyout, holding talks with private equity firms, City PM reported.
The beleaguered company – whose shares have plummeted 60 per cent in the past year – announced last week it was downgrading its full-year guidance amid soaring losses.
Instead of a profit between £10m and £20m, Superdry said last Friday it was now expecting to break even as losses surged to £17.7m in the first half of the 2023 financial year.
The retailer blamed the losses on a 5.2 per cent decline in wholesale levels, which was lagging to come back to pre-Covid profitability.
“Our profits in the first half fell short of expectations mainly due to the underperformance of wholesale,” Dunkerton said on Friday.
“Whilst we did trade well through November and December, the outlook for the remainder of the year is uncertain and as a result, we are moderating our profit outlook to broadly breakeven.”