egolinews.com

Kathmandu Holdings Limited (KMD), which first listed on 13 November 2009, has posted an $11.3 million loss for the six months to 31 December 2010. The major driver for the loss was the company’s costs associated with listing on the ASX, without which the clothing retailer would have posted a $3.6 million profit, from a loss last year of $2 million.

To list on the ASX and the NZ stock exchange, IPO costs were around $16 million.

Looking ahead, Kathmandu said it was confident that it will meet the full year FY10 guidance of EBIT NZ$50.6 million ($39.1 million) and NPAT of NZ$30.9 million ($23.9 million), after allowing for the full year pro forma adjustments contained in the prospectus.

Turning to the results for the previous six months, Kathmandu said sales had climbed nearly 22.2% to $85.8 million, while EBIT was up around 43% to $12.5 million.

Commenting on the result, Mr Halkett said the results were achieved in an improved retail environment, and reflected both a successful ongoing store rollout programme and a strong sales result from the Kathmandu Christmas sales promotion.

“Whilst this was a very positive result and ahead of our prospectus forecast it must be remembered that Kathmandu’s first half year provides a relatively low proportion of the full year’s profit,” Mr Halkett said.

”Also we are cycling a stronger trading performance in the second half year of FY09 compared to first half year FY09.”

Mr Halkett said that the government stimulus packages in Australia and New Zealand strongly supported the company.

“We do expect Australian trading for the second half year to be similarly impacted from cycling the autumn 2009 Australian stimulus package.”

At the close of business Wednesday, Kathmandu shares were trading at $1.74 each.

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