Sports Direct profit falls 51%

Sports Direct has reported a 51 per cent drop in underlying profit before tax during the "hardest year" it has faced in its history, the retailer said.

The UK's leading sports retailer posted underlying pre-tax profit of £85 million in its first year as a listed company, with underlying earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) down 29.9 per cent to £150 million.

However, the results were slightly ahead of expectations, boosting the company's share price by 3.6 per cent in morning trading to 71.75p.

Chief executive Dave Forsey said: "The trading environment in Sports Direct's first year as a listed company has been the hardest we have faced in our history, inevitably impacting our results.

"Currently we are targeting 2009 group underlying EBITDA to be at a similar level to the period just reported."

The combination of 2007 being the wettest summer weather since records began, the failure of the home nations' to qualify for Euro 2008 and an increasingly difficult consumer environment, made this "the most difficult trading period in our history" the company said in a statement.

The results also suffer from strong comparatives against last year, when sales benefited from a warm summer and the World Cup.

Underlying profit was hit by the cost of its initial public offering (IPO), currency fluctuations and poor retail sales.

Reported profit, which strips out the exceptional items and includes profits from the sale of assets, was up 96.5 per cent to £119 million.

The company also announced a total dividend for the year of 4.5p per share.

Although the poor UK performance dragged results down, international sales were up 20.8 per cent to £77.3 million, largely due to the group's acquisition of Everlast.