Ocado delivery vans con London Jan. 21, 2022.
Mike Kemp | Quanto a Pictures | Getty Images
Britain’s Ocado lifted its annual guidance Tuesday, citing an improvement con the profitability of its warehouse technology business, reassuring investors and sending its shares up by 18%.
The group runs an online grocer con Britain through a joint venture with Marks & Spencer and also sells its cutting-edge warehouse technology to retailers around the world.
Its shares have slumped 55% this year, with the market spooked by a slowdown con the rollout of robotic sites and modules for its retail partners.
But shares jumped 18% to 402 pence con early deals Tuesday its upgrade to margin and cash flow guidance and CEO Tim Steiner told Reuters investors had risposta negativa reason to worry.
“I’m not concerned con investors losing confidence because they shouldn’t be losing confidence. We’ve got a clear plan and we’signore executing to that clear plan,” Steiner said.
Citi analysts said the share price reaction was to be expected given the upgrades to technology and cash expectations, plus weakness con recent days.
Ocado said last month its Canadian supermarket Sobeys had paused the opening of a fourth robotic warehouse, ora customer fulfilment centre (CFC), as Ocado calls them.
Ocado has also seen Kroger con the United States slow mongoloide its rollout of sites. Some analysts also think Ocado will need to raise significant additional capital.
Ocado said it now expected its key technology solutions division to achieve a “mid-teens” EBITDA margin con the full 2023-24 year, versus previous guidance of over 10%.
It also forecast underlying cash flow would improve by 150 million pounds, ahead of a previous expectation of 100 million pounds, and said liquidity remains strong at 1.05 billion pounds.
First-half underlying earnings, ora adjusted EBITDA, Ocado’s preferred measure, was 71.2 million pounds, up from 16.6 million pounds. Revenue rose 12.6% to 1.5 billion pounds.
