Verkkokauppa.com - Profitability deteriorates notably

With lower volumes, increased fixed costs, and higher price competition, Verkkokauppa.com’s profitability faced a notable headwind in Q2. The development of consumer demand contains a large amount of uncertainty and the H2 result is likely below what we earlier expected.

Market continued challenging
Verkkokauppa.com’s topline faced an expected decline y/y, and with lower volumes, increased costs, and softer gross margin EBIT fell negative. Group revenue decreased by 3.7% y/y to EUR 125.7m driven by soft development of the consumer segment with the record low consumer trust and reduced consumer purchasing power. B2B segment and evolving product categories brought light with their y/y sales growth of 12.6% and 4.8% respectively. Q2 inventory was significantly above the level that of the comparison period and hence logistics costs faced a notable increase y/y which with a help of a softer gross margin resulted in an EBIT of EUR -0.9m (adj. EUR -0.2m), implying an EBIT margin of -0.7% (adj. -0.2%). Q2 EPS amounted to EUR -0.02.

Guidance was revised downwards
The company lowered its guidance for FY’22, now expecting revenue between EUR 530-570m (prev. 530-590m) and an EBIT of EUR 8-14m (prev. 12-19m). The downgrade of the upper bound of the sales guidance was a result of weaker outlook for the consumer segment while EBIT guidance was decreased due to lower expected sales volumes and increased price pressures. In addition to rising price competition, a high level of inventory forces the company to either lower product margins to increase the inventory turnover or store products over a season both potentially resulting in weaker profitability.

HOLD with a target price of EUR 3.7 (4.3)
In the light of guidance revision and Q2 result, we adjusted our estimates downwards. We now expect 2022 revenue to amount to EUR 556.0m and adjusted EBIT to land at EUR 7.9m (1.4% margin). 2022 result will be record soft; hence, we value the company with 23E multiples. With the company trading above its peers, we retain our HOLD-rating and adjust the TP to EUR 3.7 (4.3).

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