Character Group Plc (CCT.L,CGROF), a British toys, games, and giftware company, reported Wednesday a loss in fiscal 2025, compared to prior year's profit, amid charges and weak revenues mainly due to tariffs on imports to the USA. Further, the firm cut its dividend.
Looking ahead, the Board expects fiscal 2026 underlying profit to more than double, but overall annual turnover is likely to remain flat.
On the London Stock Echange, the shares were losing around 11 percent to trade at 235.10 pence.
Sales in the lead up to Christmas 2025 have been slow and have declined from 2024. The company expects that conditions are likely to remain challenging for the rest of the first half of the new financial year.
However, the launch of new product ranges together with enhancements to the ongoing ones are expected to support an improvement in the second-half performance.
Revenue derived from USA is likely to decline further, but it will be balanced by increases in other territories.
In fiscal 2025, the company recorded loss before tax of 1.82 million pounds, compared to profit of 5.68 million pounds a year ago. Loss per share was 6.74 pence, compared to prior year's profit of 25.92 pence per share.
Underlying pre-tax profit was 1.22 million pounds, compared to 6.65 million pounds a year ago.
Underlying earnings per share were 5.59 pence, compared to 29.72 pence last year.
Underlying EBITDA fell to 3.9 million pounds from prior year's 10.1 million pounds.
Revenue for the year declined to 100.47 million pounds from 123.42 million pounds in the previous year.
The company attributed the weak results mainly to the imposition of tariffs on imports to the USA, as announced earlier, which severely impacted the second half performance.
Further, the Directors will be recommending to shareholders a final dividend of 3.0p, lower than prior year's 11.0p per share. The total dividend for the year would be 6.0p per share, down from 19.0p a year ago. The record date is January 16 and payment date is January 30.
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