Kingfisher share price up as five-year plan kicks in

B&Q owner Kingfisher (LON:KGF) led the FTSE 100 up on Wednesday, after posting a better-than-expected set of results for the first half of the year.

Shares in the group, who also own Screwfix and several home improvement stores in France, soared over 7 percent on Wednesday morning, after reporting an underlying pretax profit of £440 million. First half sales rose by 4.5 percent to £6.008 billion, with retail profit increasing by 0.5 percent to £467 million.

Véronique Laury, Kingfisher’s chief executive officer, said: “Looking across our markets, we have seen solid growth at Screwfix and Poland, offset by continued weaker sales in France and some business disruption, principally reflecting product availability and clearance.”

She added: “ For the full year, we have self-help plans in place to support our overall performance and remain comfortable with full year profit expectations, though we remain cautious on the second half backdrop in the UK and France.”

The company underlined the fact it remained “cautious” for the second half of the year. It is currently 18 months into a five year turnaround plan, which includes buying back shares from its investors, the closure of some stores and widespread changes to its IT systems.

Investors were pleasantly surprised by the results, after expecting cold summer weather to drag on sales for the six month period. Shares are currently trading up 4.12 percent at 312.10 (1022GMT).