Home-improvements retailer Kingfisher reported lower annual profit as expected today and said it was cutting its full-year dividend by nearly a third.
Kingfisher, which owns UK market leader B&Q, made an adjusted pretax profit of £386 million (€490 million) in the year to February 2nd, down from £396.6 million the year before, on retail sales up 7.9 per cent at £9.4 billion (€11.9 billion).
The retailer had been expected to report profits of £387.6 million.
The full-year dividend was cut to 7.25 pence from 10.65p last year, with the final payout slashed by half to 3.4p. It said a similar reduction was expected in the first half of the current year.
Kingfisher also said it was restructuring its poorly performing Chinese B&Q business.
UK home-improvement retailers have been battling a slowdown in consumer spending, with shoppers hit by higher bills and a weakening housing market.
Shares in Kingfisher, which have underperformed the UK general retailers' index by around 18 per cent in the past 12 months, closed at 135.1p on Wednesday, valuing the company at around £3.1 billion.